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A Hittsipe STREET IN ROMAN JERUSALEM ALONG WHICH JESUS AND THE DISCIPLES MAY WELL 


HAVE WALKED (after Germer-Durand). erat 
—Frontis piece. 


Green Fund Bonk, No. 17 


ARCHAOLOGY AND 
THE BIBLE 


BY 


fot A. BARTON, Pu. D., LL. D., D. D. 


PROFESSOR OF SEMITIC LANGUAGES IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA; 
PROFESSOR OF NEW TESTAMENT LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE IN THE DIVINITY 
SCHOOL OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN PHILADELPHIA; DIRECTOR 
OF THE AMERICAN SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL RESEARCH IN BAGDAD; SOMETIME 
DIRECTOR OF THE AMERICAN SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL RESEARCH IN JERUSALEM 


RAL 


THE BIBLE LANDS, THEIR EXPLORATION, AND THE RESULTANT 
LIGHT ON THE BIBLE AND HISTORY 


PART II 


TRANSLATIONS OF ANCIENT DOCUMENTS WHICH CONFIRM OR 
ILLUMINATE THE BIBLE 


PHILADELPHIA 
AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION 


1816 CHESTNUT STREET 


Copyright, 1916, by 
AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION 


Fourth Edition Revised, Copyright, 1925, by 
AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION 


All rights vested in and reserved by 
AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION 


First Edition, May, 1916. 
Second Edition, June, 1917. 
Third Edition, June, 1920. 

Fourth Edition, February, 1925. 
Fifth Edition, September, 1927. 


Yo 
CAROLINE B. D. BARTON 


Faithful Comrade in 
the Campaign of Life 


PREFACE 


For a hundred years or: more the explorer and the excavator 
have been busy in many parts of the world. They have brought 
to light monuments and texts that have in many cases revolution- 
ized our conceptions of history and have in other cases thrown 
much new light on what was previously known. 

In no part of the world have these labors been more fruitful than 
in the lands of the Bible. In Egypt and Babylonia vistas of history 
have been opened to view that were undreamed of before explora- 
tion began. The same is true for that part of the history of Pales- 
tine which antedates the coming of Israel. Information has also 
been obtained which illumines later portions of the history, and 
makes the Biblical narrative seem much more vivid. It is now 
possible to make real to oneself the details of the life of the Biblical 
heroes, and to understand the problems of their world as formerly 
one could not do. Exploration has also brought to light many 
inscriptions in the various countries that confirm or illuminate the 
traditions, history, poetry,and prophecy of the Bible. The sands of 
Egypt have even yielded us some reputed new sayings of our Lord. 

It is the purpose of this book to gather into one volume the most 
valuable information of all sorts that the excavations in Bible lands 
have afforded, and to put it in such form that it may be of service 
to the pastor and Sunday-school teacher. An attempt has been 
made so to present the material that one may not only have the 
wealth of illumination for Biblical study that exploration has pro- 
duced, but also that he may possess an outline of the history of the 
exploration and of the countries sufficient to enable him to place 
each item in its proper perspective. Whether in handling so large 
a mass of data the writer has achieved his aim, the reader must 
judge. The preparation of the volume was undertaken at the 
request of the Board of Managers of the American Sunday-School 
Union, for publication under the John C. Green Income Fund,— 
a fund founded in 1877 “for the purpose of aiding . . . in secur- 
ing a Sunday-school literature of the highest order of merit... 
by procuring works . . . germane to the objects of the Society.” 
The foundation requires that the manuscripts procured by the fund 
shall become the exclusive property of the American Sunday- 
School Union, and, that the selling price may be reduced, the 


Vv 


vi PREFACE 


Society is prohibited from including the cost of the manuscript 
in the price of the book. 

This work is confined to those phases of archeology upon which 
light has been thrown by exploration. No attempt is made, for ex- 
ample, to treat the constitution of the Hebrew family, or the dress 
worn in ancient Palestine, for these are subjects to which explora- 
tion has contributed no new knowledge. 

The texts published in Part II have, with few exceptions, been 
freshly translated by the writer especially for this work. This 
is true of all except the majority of the Egyptian texts and two 
Greek papyri which were not accessible in the original. Transla- 
tions of these were taken from the works of well-known scholars, to 
each of whom credit is given in connection with the passage quoted 
from his work. The quotations of Palestinian place names from the 
inscriptions of the Egyptian kings, of which the writer has made a 
special study, are based on his own translations of the originals. 

An, archeological fact, or a text brought to light by excavation, 
is often of little significance apart from its interpretation, and the 
interpretation of such data frequently varies according to the 
point of view occupied by the interpreter. As stated in the fore- 
word of Part II, it has been the writer’s aim throughout to main- 
tain a neutral attitude on controverted points. 

Not the least service that archeology has rendered has been the 
presentation of a new background against which the inspiration of 
the Biblical writers stands out in striking vividness. Often one 
finds traditions in Babylonia identical with those embodied in the 
- Old Testament, but they are so narrated that no such conception of 
God shines through them as shines through the Biblical narrative. 
Babylonians and Egyptians pour out their hearts in psalms with 
something of the same fervor and pathos as the Hebrews, but no 
such vital conception of God and his oneness gives shape to their 
faith and brings the longed-for strength to the spirit. Egyptian 
sages developed a social conscience comparable in many respects 
with that of the Hebrew prophets, but they lacked the vital touch 
of religious devotion which took the conceptions of the prophets out 
of the realm of individual speculation and made them the working 
ethics of a whole people. Archeology thus reinforces to the modern 
man with unmistakable emphasis the ancient words, “Men spake 
from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1 : 21). 

The writer is under obligation to all his predecessors. Endeavor 
has been made in the footnotes to acknowledge each individual 


PREFACE Vil 


obligation. Lest any oversight may have occurred there, he would 
here express both his indebtedness and his gratitude to all who by 
their various explorations and studies have preceded him and been 
his teachers. 

Of these, Prof. R. A. Stewart Macalister should, perhaps, be 
singled out for an especial word of gratitude, for in Chapters VI-XI 
of Part I his work of excavation has been quoted more frequently 
than any other. This apparent partiality is due to the fact that 
Gezer was excavated more completely than any other Palestinian 
site; that, because of its early and long-continued occupation in 
ancient times, it reveals a great variety of civilizations; and that, in 
The Excavation of Gezer, Prof. Macalister has presented the results 
of his work with a completeness and a degree of intelligibility that 
no other excavator in Palestine has approached. He has made his 
work a model of what such a publication should be, and has thereby 
made us all his debtors. 

Especial thanks are due to Dr. George B. Gordon, Director of the 
University Museum, Philadelphia, for his kindness in furnishing an 
advance copy of the proof-sheets of Volume X of the Publications 
of the Babylonian Section of the museum, from which the material 
embodied in Chapter VIII of Part II was translated, and to Prof. 
Morris Jastrow, Jr., and Dr. Edward Chiera for the benefit of their 
fresh collation of the text. This was of considerable importance, 
since Dr. Langdon’s copy of large portions of it had been made 
from photographs, rather than from the original tablet. The 
writer is also indebted to Prof. W. R. Arnold, of Andover Theo- 
logical Seminary, for helpful suggestions concerning the interpreta- 
tion of a passage in the temple-papyrus from Elephantine which 
has hitherto baffled translators. Thanks are also due to the fol- 
lowing authors and publishers for permission to reproduce illus- 
trations contained in books written or published by them: The 
Palestine Exploration Fund, for permission relating to Warren’s 
Jerusalem; Bliss and Macalister’s Excavations in Palestine, 1898- 
1900; Macalister’s Excavation of Gezer, and Peters and Thiersch’s 
Painted Tombs of Marissa; Rev. Prof. C. J. Ball, of Oxford, Light 
from the East; J. C. Hinrichs’sche Buchhandlung, Koldewey’s 
Das Wieder Erstehende Babylon; Dr. I. Benzinger and Herr Paul 
Siebeck, Hebriische Archdologie; Monsieur J. Gabalda, Vincent’s 
Jérusalem; Prof. A. T. Clay, of Yale, Light on the Old Testament 
from Babel; Prof. Paul Haupt, of Johns Hopkins, The Psalms in 
his Sacred Books of the Old Testament; Rev. J. P. Peters and G. P. 


Vill PREFACE 


Putnam’s Sons, Peters’ Nzppur; Prof. C. C. Torrey, of Yele, 
Journal of the American Oriental Society; George H. Doran Co., 
Ramsay’s Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia; Dr. Mitchell Carroll, 
American Journal of Archeology and Art and Archeology; Rev. A. 
E. Breen, Diary of My Life in the Holy Land; Thomas Nelson and 
Sons, The Illustrated Teachers’ Bible; and to Ferris and Leach, for 
permission to use again a number of photographs published in 
the writer’s A Year’s Wandering in Bible Lands. Dr. R. E. Briin- 
now not only granted permission to reproduce illustrations from 
Briinnow and Domaszewski’s Provincia Arabia, but generously 
loaned the original photographs and drawings. Prof. Harold N. 
Fowler, Editor of the American Journal of Archeology, also kindly 
loaned an original photograph of the excavation at Sardis. The 
source of each illustration, when not the writer’s own, is indicated 
in the list of illustrations by mentioning the name of the author 
of the book or article from which it is taken. 

Grateful acknowledgment should also be made to Rev. Edwin 
Wilbur Rice, D. D., Litt. D., Honorary Editor of the Publications 
of the American Sunday-School Union, who carefully read the book 
in manuscript and made many valuable criticisms and suggestions. 

The table of contents and the chapter-headings were prepared 
by James McConaughy, Litt. D., Editor of the Publications of the 
American Sunday-School Union; the indices, by A. J. R. Schu- 
maker, M. A., Assistant Editor. The writer is grateful to them, 
not only for this service, but for many helpful criticisms and cour- 
tesies while the book has been passing through the press. Valuable 
suggestions have also been made by Mrs. Barton, who has carefully 
read the proofs. Miss Bertha V. Dreisbach has given intelligent 
and painstaking service in preparing the manuscript for the press, 
and in proof-reading; Mr. V. Winfield Challenger and Miss Laura 
G. Leach have rendered a like valuable service in assembling and 
arranging the illustrations. 

The quotations of Scripture passages throughout are from the 
American Standard Revised Version. 

If this volume should bring to some remote worker or secluded 
young person a tithe of the inspiration and joy that such a book 
would have brought the writer in the rural home of his boyhood, he 
would ask no higher reward for the labor it has cost. 

GrorGE A. BARTON. 


Bryn Mawr, Pa. 
May, 1916. 


PREFACE _ ix 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION 


It is gratifying to know that this book has been found useful 
by so many students of the Bible and that a second edition is 
necessary. Minor errors, especially typographical, have been 
corrected throughout the volume. The chief feature of this 
edition is the addition of an Appendix, in which will be found 
some material that has come to light in the last year, and one or 
two items that were overlooked when the first edition was written. 


GEORGE A. BARTON. 
June, 1917. 


PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION 


THE writer is glad that students of the Bible still find sufficient 
use for this volume to make a third edition of it desirable. The 
preparation of such an edition has afforded him opportunity to im- 
prove the translations of the Babylonian texts on pages 283 ff. and 
447 ff. by incorporating such new renderings as the published dis- 
cussions of them by different scholars have rendered probable. 
On pp. 452 ff. two new items have been added. One of these is an 
old Babylonian seal bearing the name “Israel,’”! the other, an in- 
scription from the mosaic floor of a Palestinian Jewish synagogue 
which was laid bare during the course of the Great War by the 
bursting of a shell. Two new illustrations have been added in 
order to present these to the eye. 

While this edition was passing through the press two books by 
Professor Hrozny on the decipherment of Hittite came to hand. 
The results of Professor Hrozny’s investigations are noted on pp. 
445 ff2 The slight relaxation, brought about by the armistice, of 
the war restrictions against trade with Germany has permitted two 
volumes of cuneiform texts copied from tablets found at Ashur to 
reach the writer. These also came while he was reading the proofs 
of this edition. They happily supply some important gaps in the 
text of the Creation Epic published in Part II, Chapter I of this 
book, as well as a new parallel to the Song of Songs. The writer is 
happy thus to place this new material before his readers. 

GEORGE A. BARTON. 
JUNE, 1920. 


1In the present edition this will be found in Part II, Chapter X. 
2In the present edition these investigations are incorporated in Part I, Chapter III. 


x PREFACE 
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION 


THE writer must again express his gratitude to the many users of 
this book who have made another edition possible. ‘The four years 
that have passed since the appearance of the third edition have 
been years of great archeological activity and of important arche- 
ological discoveries. Much work has been done in Palestine; 
important discoveries have been made in Babylonia and Egypt; 
part of a code of Assyrian laws has been given to the world; and 
through the labors of Professor Hrozny it is now possible to present 
a tentative translation of a Hittite code of laws. It is a pleasure to 
be able to give the readers of Archeology and the Bible the results 
of this work, as well as to have the opportunity to correct earlier 
editions in some points concerning which we now have fuller and 
more accurate knowledge. The publishers have also permitted him 
to distribute the new material through the body of the book, and 
to place each new item in the chapter to which it belongs, instead 
of adding all new material in the Appendix. Besides additions 
to a number of the chapters, four new chapters have been added 
in Part II—one on the Hittite Laws, one on the Assyrian Laws, 
one on a Babylonian Book of Lamentations, and one on Additions 
to Early Christian Literature that have been made through ar- 
cheeological research. An Appendix on the Place of the Amorites 
in the Civilization of Western Asia has been added. 


GEORGE A. BARTON. 
NovEMBER, 1924. 


PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION 


AGAIN the writer appreciates the opportunity to add to this 
book the contributions to knowledge which have been made in 
Biblical archeology since the manuscript of the fourth edition 
left his hands three years ago. He has made an effort to keep 
the work worthy of the confidence which has been accorded it. 


GEORGE A. BARTON. 
SEPTEMBER 1927, 


CONTENTS 


PARIS! 
PacE 
Bee LUSTRATIONS 0 Sy. os vais’. ss oa sle cove cen see ccs, 1 
De ee a 10 
or en 11 
CHAPTER 
RO 2 oo ee lps oles ooocdcdncwtinl. Hi 


The Land. The Preservation of Antiquities. Egyptian 
Discoveries. Decipherment. Chronology. Outline of the 
History. Egyptian Discoveries which bear on the Bible. 

BEE EXDONTAANDNASSYRIA. oo. ooo eos coco cece cc eaceeee, 42 

The Land. The Preservation of Antiquities. The Dis- 
covery of Antiquities. The Decipherment of the Inscriptions. 
Chronology. Outline of the History. Discoveries which il- 
lumine the Bible. 

ee 70 

A Forgotten Empire. Hittite Monuments. Hittite De- 
cipherment. Hittite History. 

TV. PALESTINE AND Its EXPLORATION......................... 89 

The Land. Early Exploration. Early American Explora- 
tions. Palestine Exploration Fund. The German Palestine 
Society. The American School at Jerusalem. Samaria. Par- 
ker’s Excavations at Jerusalem. Latest Excavations. 

V. OUTLINE oF PALESTINE’s ARCH&OLOGICAL History......... 118 

The Early Stone Age. The Late Stone Age. The Amorites. 
The Canaanites. Egyptian Domination. The Philistines, 
The Hebrews. Philistine Civilization. The Hebrew King- 
doms. The Exile and After. The Coming of Rome. Later 
History. 

Detemm ree tTers OF PALESTINE...) .,... .o6 sos sd cieececceccn. 139 

Their Sites. The Walls. The Stone Work. Houses. Pal- 
aces. Foundation Sacrifices. City Gates. Water Supply. 

ete Oe raND AGRICULTURE... 0... . 6500s eves eecces.. cho... 148 
a ih eS so dw cele pweenl oe 157 

Importance of Pottery. Pre-Semitic Pottery. First Semit- 
ic Pottery to 1800 B. c. Pottery of Second Semitic Period. 
Third Semitic Period. Israelitish or Fourth Semitic Period. 
Hellenistic Period. 


IX. UTENstrs anD PERSONAL ORNAMENTS...................., 165 
X. Measures, WEIGHTS, AND MONEY....................... 174 
Measures. Weights. Inscribed Weights. Money. 
Bete EACes AND TEMPIES?.........3,0045..0....... 183 


A Sanctuary of the Pre-Semitic Cave-Dwellers. A Rock- 
Altar at Megiddo. A Rock-Altar at Jerusalem. High Place 
at Tell es-Safi. High Place at Gezer. At Taanach. High 
Places at Petra. A Supposed Philistine Temple. At Megid- 
do. The Temple to Augustus at Samaria. : 

xi 


xii CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PacE 
XTI. THe Tomps or PALESTINE. ...%5..5. o) 06 pee 195 
Burning the Dead. Cave Burials. Cistern Burial. Burial 
under Menhirs. Earth-Graves. Rock-Hewn Shaft Tombs. 
Doorway Tombs. Tombs with a Rolling-Stone. 


XII. JERUSALEM... coe esi y eae ny ooo whe ee nr 201 


Situation. Gihon. Cave-Dwellers. The El-Amarna Pe- 
riod. Jebusite Jerusalem. The City of David. Solomon’s 
Jerusalem. From Solomon to Hezekiah. Hezekiah. From 
Hezekiah to the Exile. The Destruction of 586 B. c. The 
Second Temple. Nehemiah and the Walls. Late Persian 
and Early Greek Periods. In the Time of the Maccabees. 
Asmonzan Jerusalem. Herod the Great. The Pool of Beth- 
esda. Gethsemane. Calvary. Agrippa I and the Third 
Wall. 


XIV. THe DECAPOLIS.. 6. 06.0 cc cls sentence 229 


Origin. Damascus. Scythopolis. Cities East of the Sea 
of Galilee. Gadara. Pella and Dion. Gerasa. Phila- 
delphia. Jesus in the Decapolis. 


XV. ATHENS, CORINTH, AND THE CHURCHES OF ASIA........... 235 
PART II 
CHAPTER PAGE 
TI. AN Epic oF THE CREATION WHICH CIRCULATED IN BABYLON AND 
ASSYRIA IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY B&B. Gi. cee 251 


Text of the Epic. Comparison of the Epic with the First 
Chapter of Genesis. The Epic and Other Parts of the Bible. 


Tl. Some OTHER ACCOUNTS OF THE CREATION FOUND IN BABY- 


Text of a British Museum Tablet. Comparison of it with 
Genesis 2. Text of a Tablet from Nippur and Comparison 
with Genesis. Text of a Tablet from Ashur Compared with 
Genesis. . 
Il. Tur BABYLONIAN SABBATH)... 0.02095 oven one 281 


Feast of Marduk and Zarpanit. A Day called Shabatum. 
A Day in Some Tablets at Yale. 
IV. THe LEGEND or ADAPA AND THE FALL OF MAN........... 283 
Comparison of the Adapa Myth with Genesis 3. The Myth. 
A Babylonian Story of Expulsion from a Garden, with Com- 
parison of Genesis 3. 
V. Tae PATRIARCHS BEFORE THE FLOOD... .y, 37s eee 289 
Babylonian Long-Lived Kings. Comparison with Genesis 
5. Comparison with Genesis 4. 
VI. A BABYLONIAN ACCOUNT OF THE FLOOD, FROM A TABLET 
WRITTEN AT NINEVEH IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY B. C. 299 


Translation of the Text. Comparison with Genesis 6-9. 
Another Babylonian Version. 


CONTENTS | xii 


CHAPTER Pace 


VII. AN AccouNT oF THE CREATION AND FLOOD, FROM A TABLET 
WRITTEN AT NIPPUR BEFORE 2000 B. C.................. 304 


Translation. Comparison with the Other Version. 


VIII. An Account oF THE ORIGIN oF A CITY AND THE BEGINNING 
OF AGRICULTURE, FROM A TABLET WRITTEN AT NIPPUR 


EMRE Mee sy wat bcc elke! 309 
Translation. Comparison with Biblical Material. 
Pree OPRAHAM AND ARCHZOLOGY...........5.0-0.000c000-00... 316 


Abraham hired an Ox. Abraham leased a Farm. Abra- 
ham paid his Rent. Who was this Abraham? Travel be- 
tween Babylonia and Palestine. Hammurapi, King of the 
Westland. Kadur-Mabug. Kings supposed by some to be 
those of Genesis 14. 

PEO C BEANE JOSEOH 5 0. icc. obs ke oss dele ee devecceccece, 325 

The Names Jacob, Israel, and Joseph in Babylonian and 
Egyptian Records. “The Tale of the Two Brothers”; its 
Bearing on the Story of Joseph in Genesis. Letters toa Ruler 
like Joseph. The Seven Years of Famine. Inscription show- 
ing Preparation for Famine. 

AI. PALESTINE IN THE PATRIARCHAL AGE..................... 334 

The Tale of Sinuhe. Communication between Egypt and 
Palestine. Asiatics in Egypt. 

OMe MUSTER XODUS. (5. 6 cc oo oe cn eoceceecccceuccg.. 337 

The Legend of Sargon of Agade; its Resemblance to the 
Story of Moses. The Pillar of Merneptah; an Appearance 
of the Name “Israel.” 

XII. THE Cope or HAMMURAPI AND THE PENTATEUCH.......... 340 

The Text of the Code; Resemblance to and Contrast with 
the Mosaic Code. The Mosaic Code not borrowed from the 
Babylonian; Different Underlying Conceptions. 


Pee eeE eR CODE OF LAWS... oye. coc coe ce cece occecccnk 369 
Hittite Laws with Comparison of Biblical and Babylonian 
Laws. 
XV. Parr or an Assyrian Cope or LAWS.................... 389 
Assyrian Laws with Comparison of Biblical and Babylonian 
Laws. 
XVI. An ALLEGED PARALLEL To Leviticus—A CARTHAGINIAN LAW 
BO eURENIN MACKINICES 10 oo. ba) ooid canal es 400 
The Text of the Carthaginian Law. Comparison with the 
Levitical Law. 
XVI. Some LETTERS rRoM PALESTINE...............0..-0-..... 402 
Letters of Rib-Adda of Gebal. Of Ebed-Hepa of Jerusalem. 
Their Light on Conditions in the Period of the Egyptian 
Domination of Palestine. 
XVIII. Documents rroM THE Time or ISRAEL’s JUDGES e457 410 


Report of Wenamon. Its Illustration of Certain Points of 
Biblical History about the Time of Deborah or Gideon. 
Reference to the Philistines, 


e 


XIV 


CHAPTER 


CONTENTS 


XIX. ARCHEOLOGICAL LIGHT ON THE BOOKS OF KINGS.......... 416 


XX. 


XXI. 


XXII. 


XXIII. 


XXIV. 


XXV. 


XXVI. 


Gudea and Cedar-Wood for his Palace. The Eponym 
Canon. The Seal of Shema. Shishak’s List of Conquered 
Asiatic Cities. Ashurnasirpal’s Description of his Expedition 
to Mediterranean Lands. Shalmaneser III’s Claims regard- 
ing Tribute from the Kings of Israel. The Moabite Stone. 
Adadnirari IV’s Mention of the “‘Land of Omri.” Inscription 
describing Tiglath-pileser IV’s Campaign. Sargon’s Con- 
quests. Alleged Traces of the Ten Tribes in Exile. Sen- 
nacherib’s Western Campaigns. ‘The Siloam Inscription. 
Esarhaddon’s List of Conquered Kings. Ashurbanipal’s 
Assyrian Campaign. Necho of Egypt. Nebuchadrezzar II. 
Evil-Merodach. Discoveries in Sheba. 

THe ENp OF THE BABYLONIAN EXITE (2) 03 eee 442 

Inscriptions of Nabuna’id; their Bearing on Biblical State- 
ments regarding Belshazzar. Account of the Capture of 
Babylon bearing on the Book of Daniel. Inscription of Cyrus 
bearing on the Capture of Babylon. Cyrus’s Permission for 
the Return to Jerusalem. 

A JewisH CoLoNy IN EGyPT DURING THE TIME OF NEHEMIAH. 449 

Papyri Witness to the Existence of a Colony at Elephan- 
tine. Translation of a Petition relating to their Temple. 
Reply of Persian Governor. Historical Bearings of these 
Documents. A Letter relating to the Passover. A Letter 
showing that the Jews were Unpopular at Elephantine. 

A: BABYLONIAN JOB... .. 2.0. 20s 6 ence ee ise 452 

Translation of a Poem relating to the Afflictions of a Good 
Man. Comparison with the Book of Job. A Fragment of 
Another Similar Poem. 

PSALMS FROM BABYLONIA AND EGYPT........... pth acca 458 

Character of their Psalms. Babylonian Prayers to the 
Goddess Ishtar. Comparison with the Psalter. A Babylo- 
nian Hymn to the Moon-God. A Babylonian Hymn to Bel. 

An Egyptian Hymn to the Sun-God. Is the Hymn Monothe- 
istic? An Egyptian Hymn in Praise of Aton. Comparison 
with the Psalter. 

PARALLELS TO PROVERBS AND ECCLESIASTES.............-- 467 

The Nature of the Book of Proverbs and the Parallels. 
Babylonian Proverbs from the Library of Ashurbanipal. Pre- 
cepts from the Library of Ashurbanipal. Comparison with the 
Bible. Egyptian Precepts of Ptahhotep. Comparison with 
the Bible. Parallel to Ecclesiastes from the Gilgamesh Epic. 

EGYPTIAN PARALLELS TO THE SONG OF SONGS............-- 473 

Nature of the Song of Songs. Translation of Some Egyp- 
tian Love-Poems. Comparison with Biblical Passages. A 
Babylonian Song of Songs. 

ILLUSTRATIONS OF PASSAGES IN THE PROPHETS...........-. 479 

Uniqueness of the Prophetic Books. Some Egyptian 
Prophecies. An Assyrian Prophetic Vision. Comparison 
with the Bible. The Egyptian Social Conscience. Tale of the 
Eloquent Peasant. Comparison with the Bible. An Ideal 
King; Extract from the Admonitions of Ipuwer. Comparison 
with Messianic Expectations. Sheol. Ishtar’s Descent to 
the Underworld. Comparison with Prophetic Passages. A 
Lamentation for Tammuz. The Fall of Ninevah. 


CHAPTER 


XXVIT. 


XXVIII. 


XXIX. 


XXXI, 


Early Collections of the Words of Jesus. Translation of 
Sayings found in 1897. Comments. Translation of a Leaf 
found in 1904. Comments. Opinions as to these Sayings. 


Translation of a Papyrus showing that in the Second Cen- 
tury Enrolment was made Every Fourteen Years. Com- 
ments. Translation referring to an Enrolment in the Reign 
of Nero. Fragment from the Reign of Tiberius. Enrolments 
probably inaugurated by Augustus. Document showing that 
People went to their own towns for Enrolment. Inscription 
supposed to refer to Quirinius. Inscription from Asia Minor 
referring to Quirinius. Discussion. Conclusions. 


ARCHZOLOGICAL LIGHT ON THE ACTS AND EPISTLES........ 


The Politarchs of Thessalonica. An Altar to Unknown 
Gods. An Inscription from Delphi and the Date of Paul’s 
Contact with Gallio. Some Epistles from Egypt. Inscrip- 
tions mentioning Aretas, King of Arabia. The Synagogue of 
the Libertines. The Chalice of Antioch. 


A FEw OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS OF ARCHAZOLOGICAL RESEARCH 


TO THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE BIBLE AND EARLY CHRIS- 
remeber eee ts 20 ole, i, SN ey oe ef es a 


Fragments of a Hebrew Text of the Commandments. 
The Hebrew Text of Ecclesiasticus. Enoch. Other Apoc- 
rypha. Documents of the Zadokite Sect. The Sinaitic 
Manuscript. Other New Testament Manuscripts. The 
Washington Gospels. The Curetonian and Sinai Syriac. 
The Coptic Versions. Tatian’s Diatessaron. The Gospel 
and Revelation of Peter. The Odes of Solomon. Sub- 
Apostolic Writings. Greek Papyri. 


APppEenpDIx I. THE PLACE oF THE AMORITES IN THE CIVILIZATION OF WEST- 


CNET) OPEN IR Cert ce i Ra Oe Daehn # he Pint ang ere MR Bg 

Theory that the Amorites, a West Semitic People, estab- 
lished an Empire in the Fifth Pre-Christian Millennium with 
its Capital at Aleppo, and that Babylonians and Egyptians 
borrowed from their Civilization. Reasons for rejecting the 
Theory. The Amorites East Semites who carried East 
Semitic Civilization to the West. Theory that the Bib- 
lical Traditions Originated among the Amorites rather than 
among the Babylonians. Reasons for regarding this as Un- 
founded. 


CONTENTS XV 
PAGE 
A BABYLONIAN BooK OF LAMENTATIONS............e0ec00- 495 
The Text and its Occasion. Comparison with the Lamen- 
tations of Jeremiah. 
REPUTED SAYINGS OF JESUS FOUND IN EGyPT............. 498 


ARCHEOLOGICAL LIGHT ON THE ENROLMENT OF QuiRINIUS.. 502 


XV1 


CONTENTS 


AppENpDIx II. THE Latest ADDITIONS TO OUR KNOWLEDGE.......... 


Tutankhamen’s Coffin. Recent Exploration in Babylonia 
and Assyria. Chronology. Languages of the Hittites and 
their Kinsfolk. Excavations at Megiddo, Shechem, Tell 
Beit Mirsim, Beisan. The City Raamses. Excavation at 
Tell en-Nasbeh. Skull ofa Paleolithic Man. Further Discov- 
erieson Ophel. Jerusalem’s “Third Wall.” Antioch in Pisidia. 
Amraphel and Chedorlaomer. The Teachings of Amen-em- 
ope. The Date of the Chalice of Antioch. The Gospel of 
John in Sahidic. A New Cuneiform Reference to the 
Amorites. 


INDEX OF SCRIPTURE PASSAGES........- gue esas iecnncs pale edie eee 
Pepe oe Ba a a ee eee Ps eye ‘Sate sa eee 571 
ILLUSTRATIONS: Plates 1-127. 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


A Hillside Street in Roman Jerusalem along which Jesus and the 


Disciples may well have walked............ccecscceevs Frontispiece. 
FIGURE PLATE 
1 Syrian Traders in Egypt, from a Tomb at Beni Hasan (after Ball).. 1 
MITER EE UE VOU as - siacc'cic cin bcics s 60 csen ce eceecseingeecdents 1 
BER CRELI DEI REV IG cag cine sob snc e cacdeacaces ceacucevusveen 1 
MMU UO TOV nes skeet ce csnp seb ooeaecaaevcvenanes | 
Dre IO VPA ITC, OF NAITC. 6. se ces esse css decsseeense 1 
Spyies Gomnur and Kafe. 2.2... ee ccs twcseses neces 2 
aR OGOT SG fe oe. kan oes stds eked b dacs censss nance 2 
pepe error mE re-ciynastic LOMD.. 2... s<0000 ce des civnccecanses 3 
Baetieaurorcie mummy Of kamses I]... . 2. oi. ck ce cece eee csececns 3 
10 A Store-Chamber at Pithom (after Naville)..........ccccevesecccs 4 
11 Ancient and Modern Brick-Making (after Petrie)..............000. a 
12 Plan of City and Temple of Leontopolis (after Petrie).............. 5 
BME ame OL A IVCT GE PCC). we ce et ev yeu secneeveoesccus 5 
14 The Rosetta Stone (after Thomas Nelson and Sons)..........0000. 6 
hoeee aapaer inscription of Merneptah,.......5......sc00crecnee 6 
Dime er iteror ear (dyter Clay)... wc ccc ccc ccs cvsabeeeccceunns 7 
Rime cone ation AL Muliar (after CIGy)...... e cee cee ese cvnevduvace 7 
16 Grace of Ishtar, Babylon (after Koldewey).. 2.0... 000. cccuccsnccce 8 
19 Phalanx of Soldiers from Eannatum’s “Stele of Vultures”......... 8 
eiremeec tier (tauren arom Persepolis. ..... 0.6... cscs cua nuccccvever 9 
amram eee SEP UCINETIO. .... ote au ws vic uses ecne uted du cawneeas 9 
Been summit stre imrad (after Peters)... . 0... 5. ccc ccccccccacncues 9 
23 Hittite Gates at Boghaz Koi (after Puchstein)...........ccceccees 10 
24 Hittite Types from Egyptian Monuments (after Garstang).......... 10 
erate atte LOsier PUchstetn) . 0. ok acne ease cbcaaneeteans 11 
esmee esterase LATKONCOINOS . .. ck. ew cnc ence ane eeccgusseuweeavi 11 
ere. ve Seal oO: Shera, Servant of Jeroboam..........2...pcscseecae 11 
Beet cerreay aiter Excavation... ......0..cscecscecn ees denceccnte 12 
Pimeoe wie OF the Old Testament Jericho... ......¢sccsecceogucnare 12 
CR EE CPOT oon cn cc va s'vve be ed dba aN ee enouM eens 13 
$1 Remains of a Colonnaded Street at Samaria... .......cccceececcs 13 
MLL OGL GL FAUT hs, p'oic ss evs ep dec oben ae Laan ue ce ent 14 
33 Egyptians Attacking a Palestinian City (after Perrot and Chipiez).. 14 
memeterreutien jericho (after Sellin) .. oc. ccc cw vac e ene aesccauwaens je 
35 Israelitish Houses at Jericho (after Sellin).........cccccccevcceess 15 
feeeriuatines tom the Palace of Ramses IIT....0))....,cecccrescsees 16 


2 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
FIGURE PLATE 
37 Canaanitish Fortress at Jericho (after Sellin)..........scneesueeee 16 
38 Inscribed Disc from Phestos (one-fourth actual size).............. 17 
39 Gebel Fureidis. . 05.05.05 c0c0 bso web eb ole erent 17 
40 Bastion for the Protection of an Inserted Tower (after Macalister)... 18 
41 Remains of Walls of Megiddo (after Schwmacher)............0.000+ 18 
42 Walls of Buildings at Samaria (after Reisner).........0ceecevceees 19 
43 Specimens of Stone-Work at Gezer (after Macalister). ............. 19 
44 Building-Bricks from Gezer (after Macalister).........0cceceeceees 19 
45 ‘Plan of Palace at Taanach. (after Sellen) 2 a0) see ee 20 
46 The Great City Wall at Gezer (after Macalister)............0.00.- 20 
47 Israelitish Houses at Gezer. .... 00.0, 0 ysis cise 0 ag 21 
48 Specimens of Mosaic Floors (after Macalister). ............++0005- 21 
49 A Doorway at Gezer (after Macalister)... 0.6. dees oe 22 
50 Door-Sockets from Gezer (after Macalister).........00cceecceccess 22 
51 Supposed House of Hiel, Jericho (after Sellin).............0.---- 23 
52 Foundation of the Palace of Omri, Samaria (after Reisner)......... 23 
53 Hebrew Palace at Megiddo (after Schumacher)... ........0..eeceee- 23 
54 Plan of the Maccabean Castle at Gezer (after Macalister).......... 24 
55 Stone-Work of the Maccabean Castle (after Macalister)........... 24 
56 <A Foundation-Deposit, Gezer (after Macalister)..........+.seeeee. 24 
57 A City Gate at Megiddo (after Schwmacher)..........++++essee00- 25 
58 The South Gate at Gezer (after Macalisier).........-..-+es+eseess 25 
59 The South Gate at Beth-shemesh (after Mackenzie).............-+. z5 
60 Entrance to the Underground Tunnel at Gezer (after Macalister).... 26 
61 The North Gate at Gezer (afier Macalister). ........|-..ss es coe 26 
62 Plans of the Underground Tunnel at Gezer (after Macalister)....... 27 
63 Plan of Underground Tunnel at Gibeon (after Abel)............... 28 
64. One of Solomon’s Pools... .. 2.5. p= 0m <2 epee pee ee 28 
65 Post of City Gate, Samaria (after Reisner). 2. pa ee 29 
66 Part of City Wall and Gate, Samaria (after Reismer)............... 29 
67 Road South of Gerizim. .: . 0.00 00.5 eee 30 
68 Lines of Roman Roads at Tell. el-Ful. .: i. c.2 ee 30 
69. Roman Road North of Amman... 0.5. stm uis 0 en ea 30 
70 A Granary at Gezer (after Macalister). .........% 2.5 eee 31 
71 Some Roman Mile-Stones. .... 4. 4.24 cq ute aie meshes net eee 31 
72 Plan of a Granary at Gezer (after Macalister).....<.....-csseees:s 31 
73. A Hoe (after Macalister) 00... 0.5 sos ony ceieie ls ee 32 
74 An Egyptian Reaping (after Wreszimski) ........00.sceseeccseeees 32 
75. A Sickle (after Wressinsht) . i000. o's ss cele ie ee 32 
76 Plowshares from Megiddo (after Schumacher)........s0+seceeeeees 32 
77. Egyptian Plowing (after Wilkinson) .....».s94 cee aa 33 
78 A Modern Threshing-Floor: ............ +s. 00she Deepen 33 
79 Egyptians Threshing and Winnowing (after Wilkinson)...........- 33 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 3 


FIGURE PLATE 
80 Egyptian Threshing-Sledge (after Wilkinson) .........ccccccceeees 33 
81 A Saddle-Quern from Megiddo (after Schumacher)..........0000005 34 
meme Otnry uerm (afer A acalisier) ... 6. 6 cee ccc cde we cececccs vies 34 
poomeenacrtar and Pestle (after Macalister)... ........0ccc cc vecceecceee 34 
84 Two Women Grinding at a Mill (after Schumacher)................ 34 
Somenmeancient Olive-Press (Gfier Macalister). ......000ceccccecscueee 35 
86 A Modern Olive-Press (after Macalister)... 0.0... ccc cece cece cease 35 
Rymrey ELV OC (Gsier JAGCOlSter) 6c. ce ce cc cn eneceueevceess 36 
88 An Olive-Press at Work (after Macalister)......... ccc cc ec cc ec eeee 36 
sueitcows: storms irom Gezer (after Macalister)... 2.0... c cece cee oeas 3K 
90 Animals’ Heads from Gezer (after Macalister)..........ccccccceees 37 
Oiweotorse soit irom Gezer (after Macalister) ....... cee cc wee cc cans 5 
92 Drawings of Horses from Gezer (after Macalister)....0.....0.0005. 37 
Osean neeiny oirg irom Gezer (afier Macalister)... 0... 0. cece cece ccc eees 38 
94 A Cock from Marissa (after Peters and Thiersch)..........0000000- 38 
Ome epee ive 1rom Gezer (after Macalister)... 000s cece cee ceete 38 
mer Pee etre Ars (aster AI OCAIISLEr)... . ow cca eco ewe eecnceans 39 
ee teem ottery (afier Macalister). ....6.0..0.ccecesvuuceees 39 
98 Four Pitchers from the First Semitic Stratum (after Macalister)... .. 39 
99 Three Pitchers from the First Semitic Stratum (after Macalister).... 39 

100 A Jar from the First Semitic Stratum (after Macalister)............ 39 

101 Jugs from the Second Semitic Stratum (after Macalister)........... 40 

102 A Jug from the Second Semitic Stratum (after Macalister).......... 40 

103 A Jar from the Second Semitic Stratum (after Macalister).......... 40 

104 Some Fine Pottery from the First Semitic Stratum (after Macalister) 41 

105 “Ear” and “Button” Jar-Handles (after Macalister).............. 41 

eee ee eer tate (ulster MGCaIister) 0 oc. cece ce ee coun eueeces 41 

ie atemottomen Jug (after Macalister)... 0.000. cc ccc eeenccessecs 41 

108 A Painted Philistine Vase from Beth-shemesh (after Mackenzie)... 42 

109 War-Scene on Potsherd from Megiddo (after Schumacher).......... 42 

110 Jars of Third Semitic Stratum from Beth-shemesh (afler Mackenzie) 42 

111 Hebrew Pottery from Megiddo (after Schumacher)... .......000055 42 

112 Hebrew Jars and Pitchers from Jericho (after Sellin).............. 43 

113 Hebrew Pitchers and Bowls from Jericho (after Sellin)............. 43 

een vane: wom Gezer (after Macatister) 5. cy. aces cece ansancces 44 

Seer otter s seal trom Gezer (after Macalister) 0.4 0 ccec ce ec ee cess 44 

116 An Inscribed Hebrew Jar-Stamp from the Shephelah (after Bliss and 

rE Re emenmee Chrys SEN ks Ciel: Wid aa Get eerae cue ile oe ets 44 

117 Hebrew Pottery from Gezer (after Macalister) ......... cece ec ceeee 44 

118 A Scarab used as a Jar-Stamp (after Macalister). 0.2.0... cee ee eeee 45 

119 A Jar-Handle Stamped with a Scarab (after Macalister)............ 45 

120 A Jar with Tapering Base from Gezer (after Macalister)............ 45 

121 Hellenistic Filter from Gezer (after Macalister)..........0.cceeeees 45 


4 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

FIGURE PLATE 
122 Hellenistic Pottery from Gezer (after Macalister)............0005. 45 
123 Hellenistic Strainer from Gezer (after Macalister). ...........0005- 46 
124 Roman Pots from Gezer (after Macalister)............. gee es 46 
125 Hellenistic Jar from Gezer (after Macalister)..........0cceecceeces 46 
126 A Lamp of the First Semitic Period, Megiddo (after Schwmacher).... 46 
127 Lamps from the Second Semitic Period, Gezer (after Macalister).... 47 
128 Lamps from the Israelitish Period, Gezer (after Macalister)......... 47 
129 A Byzantine Lamp from Jericho (after Sellin)..........0..e000-- 47 
130 A Lamp bearing a Christian Legend (after Macalister).............. 47 
131 Hellenistic Lamps from Gezer (after Macalister)........,....0.0005 48 
132 Hebrew Lamps from Jericho (after Sellin)..........0.0+cseseeuene 48 
133. Ovens found at Gezer (after Macalister)... ....¢.0.secesusssaemenee 49 
134 A Baking-Tray from Gezer (after Macalister)..............+02000: 49 
135 Bronze Dishes from Gezer (after Macalister)..........0.ceecvecees 49 
136 Shell Spoons from Gezer (after Macalister). 4.2, sos oon eee 49 
137 Silver Dishes from a Philistine Grave at Gezer (after Macalister).... 50 
138 Glass Ointment Vessels from Gezer (after Macalister).............. 50 
139 Feeding-Bottles (?), Gezer (after Macalister)...........0cceceeeee 51 
140 Forks from Gezer (after Macalister) 2 5.22225 1s eee 51 
141 Philistine Silver Ladle, Gezer (after Macalister)...........0..000005 51 
142 Bronze Needles and Pins from Gezer (after Macalister)............ 51 
143 Bone Needles from Gezer (after Macalister)... .......0+-cesceseee 52 
144 Modern Woman Spinning..... 5.5.2.5. 522 sues ¢ Det eee 52 
145 Spindle Whorls from Gezer (after Macalister). ..........000ceeeeee 52 
146 A Large Key from Gezer (after Macalister)... ............e0s0c0+e- 52 
147 A Smaller Key from Gezer (after Macalister). ........2..00c00008- 52 
148 Lamp-Stands from Megiddo (after Schwmacher)...........0..0008. 53 
149 Flint Knives from Jericho (after Sellin)... 2. ...un eee 53 
150 Iron Knives from Gezer (after Macalister); 7.4.3... eo ee 54 
151 Bronze Knives from Gezer (after Macalister). ........00..00cs00ee 54 
152 A Chisel from Gezer (after Macalister). ...;. Jian oa ee 55 
153 A File from Gezer (after Macalister)... -..0i5..0.0.4 0s ae 55 
154 A Cone of Flint for making Knives, Gezer (after Macalister)....... 55 
155 A Bronze Hammer-Head, Gezer (after Macalister).............+4.. 55 
156 A Fish-Hook, Gezer (after Macalister). ..<, Ag.av ene eee 55 
157 A Bone Awl-Handle from Gezer (after Macalister)..............+5. 55 
158 Whetstones from Jericho (after Sellin). 2 y. 0-95 ese oe en 55 
159 ‘Nails from Gezer. (after Macalister)...» titel sa ee 55 
160 Axe-Heads from Gezer (after Macalister). .........cscccecceusaees 56 
161 Carpenters’ Tools from Gezer (after Macalister)... ......0..0sceees 56 
162 A Scimitar from Gezer (after Mecalister). 1). 10. eet ee 57 
163 Impression of a Basket on Mud, Gezer (after Macalister)........... 57 
164 Flint Arrow-Heads from Gezer (after Macalister).........sceecee0s 57 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS = 


FicurE PLATE 
165 Bronze Arrow-Heads from Gezer (after Macalister)............005. 57 
166 Bronze Swords from Gezer (after Macalister). ..... 0.00. ccc ceeecee 58 
167 Bronze Spear-Heads, Gezer (after Macalister).........0.0cc0ccuce, 58 
Doerr spe tri Grezer (afier, Macalister)... 0k. ck ccc ccc cucdecees 59 
ee meee ey etnaierlaryy (aster FOU pt).... .. cas cc an cc cecccccccecs 59 
a0 Ware Assyrian Upright Harp (after Hawpi)...... 0.6.06 0.00 cc cc ccece 59 
171 An Assyrian Horizontal Harp (after Haupt). .... 0... cece cece cen 59 
Dereareepy onian bar (afler Haul). ...... ccc cc ccc cco ccccccccuse 59 
173 Jewish Harps on Coins of Bar Cocheba, 132-135 a. p. (after Madden) 59 
174 Assyrian Dulcimer (afler Haupt).......... bie pm her anes oe ah ey 59 
Peommesia trom (sezer (afier Macalister). ... 2.00... ccc ccc cc ucwucee 60 
176 A Comb from Gezer (after Macalister)... 0.0... ccc ccc ccc ccc ceeee 60 
Pte loye arom Gezer (afer Macalister)... 0.0... ec ccc ccc ccceces 60 
Neem) error, Gezer (afler Macalisier). .. 0... cic ccc cece een duce 60 
179 Children’s Rattles from Gezer (after Macalister)... 0.0.0.0. .c0cceee 60 
Pee eerume-box, Gezer (after Macalister)... . 0. cc ccc crc cco cceee 61 
TSl A Necklace from Gezer: (after Macalister). ........ 00 scccsccccccos 61 
Peemerecerets arom Gezer (afier Macalister). ........00cceccescevccces 61 
183 Spatulz from Gezer (after Macalister)... 0.0.0... ccc ccc cece cee 61 
184 Rings from Gezer (after Macalister)... 0... ccc cc ccc cence aces 61. 
185 Supposed Hebrew Measures from Jerusalem (after Germer-Durand).. 62 
ee EM OS, a apes ed vd os ceive ea sescadeaskaes 63 
187 A Payim Weight belonging to Haverford College.................. 63 
Dmeeece went (after Torrey)... cc ee ee cece eecleceues 63 
Pete sare Ot Jarius (after Benzinger).... 00... 0 cece ccs cconceces 63 
190 A Tetradrachma of Alexander the Great (after Benzinger).......... 63 
191 A Coin of Ptolemy Lagi (after Benzinger)....... 0.00. ccc ccceeeees 63 
192 Half-Shekel of Simon the Maccabee (after Benzinger).............. 64 
1935 on Coin of John Hyrcanus (after Madden)... 0... 0.0. c ccc cece oe eee 64 
Peemmeberrmracuina OF GYSIMACHUS,... 0.0... c a ccc ewe ce nec cecacdeens 64 
eM RENE EI SEIS yg. ss sce ce vs o's cc cesses sidccvas¥oedevevce 64 
eT ACTIDETIUS 6.0 oy cc vad cy cee secavcctoeinegvsssaunee 64 
Se MMR TOURING ye cc ccs dcecescvencaccedscesvetcecacs 64 
SM MIOOR GE AHEFORL tO GaTCabl os ccs sce cc caasceseseelaetecueee ce 64 
I Si EPC DTIAMUPSIS UP) ic ccs xo ss seen ct is tess Ma dee eld uies vee ee os 64 
200 A Coin of Herod Agrippal...... Se Sdn ee RATS eee oe 64 
Memeerrouecc of tie Revolt of A.D. 70..6.6..6% ci Sslce coves sssceucaes 64 
202 Cave-Dwellers’ Place of Sacrifice, Gezer (after Macalister).......... 65 
203 Plan of Caves at Semitic High Place, Gezer (after Macalister)...... 65 
Pemeeer inure ot the High Place at Gezer......00...2c<0snsacescncaes 65 
205 Rock-Altar at Megiddo (after Schumacher) ..........0ccceeecceees 66 
206 The “Beth-el” of Gezer (after Macalister)... 0.0.0... ccc eecececes 66 


207 


The Supposed Serpent-Pen at Gezer (after Macalister)............. 66 


6 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
FIGURE PLATE 
208 The Rock-Altar at Jerusalem (after Dalman)..........c0eeceeeee: 67 
209 The Laver at Gezer (after Macalister)... cee eee 67 
210 The Terra-cotta Altar from Taanach (after Sellin).............000- 68 
211 Supposed High Place at Taanach (after Sellin).........0.ce.0+000- 68 
212 High Place at Tell es-Safi (after Bliss and Macalister).............- 69 
213 Libation Bowl from Taanach (after Sellin) 0. 7.00, cs oles 69 
214 An Astarte Plaque from Gezer (after Macalister). ..........00c000- 69 
215 Plan of the High Place at Petra (after Briinnow)...............-+-- 70 
216 Plan of Herod’s Temple at Samaria (after Lyon)................-- 70 
217 The Altar at Petra (after Briinnow)....... cae 71 
218 ‘The “Round Altar” at Petra (after Brinnow)........1...00 es uous 71 
219 Supposed “Pillars” at Petra (after Briinnow)...............+e000. (pg! 
219a A Brazen Serpent from Gezer (after Macalister)..............s000. ia 
220 Plan of Supposed Semitic Temple at Gezer (after Macalister)....... 72 
221 Walls of Herod’s Temple, Samaria (after Reisner)................- 72 
222 ‘Pillars’ of a Supposed Temple, Gezer (after Macalister).......... 73 
223 Chapel of the Palace at Megiddo (after Schumacher)............... 73 
224 Voluted Capital (probably Philistine) from Megiddo(after Schumacher) 74 
225 Incense-Burner from Megiddo (after Schumacher)..............+.- 74 
226 Philistine Graves, Gezer (after Macalister)...........2..0+s04 nee 75 
227. A Rock-hewn Tomb at Siloam (after Benzinger)............+.++.-- 75 
228 A Shaft-Tomb (after Bliss and Macalister). ..........0seeeceeeres 75 
229 A Cistern-Burial at Gezer (after Macalister). .........0..0.ceeeeee 75 
230 A Columbarium at Petra (after Dalman)...........0..0.ee eevee 76 
231 Entrance to the Tomb of the Judges. ......0 29. een 76 
232 A Sunken-Door ‘Tomb (after Mitt. u. Nach. d. Deutsch. Paldstina- 
Vereins) oo onc cede cos ocslnie sna win Dee i 
233 Kokim in the Tomb of the Judges... ...... =. v.00 viene i 
234 Plan of a Hellenistic Tomb at Marissa (after Peters and Thiersch).. 78 
235. A Cross-Section of the Tomb of the Judges. ..........5..sseum see 78 
236 Architectural Decoration of a Hellenistic Tomb at Marissa (after 
Peters and Thiersch)...s.0 ce ect een ce ee ee 79 
237. Plan of the Upper Floor of the Tomb of the Judges............... 79 
238 A Tomb with a Rolling-Stone at Beit Jibrin (after Moulton)........ 80 
239 Interior of a Hellenistic Tomb at Marissa (after Peters and 
Thiersch) 6 0) 6c ce svn vines aun ee 64s 0h pint eneeRene n 80 
240 The Hills and Valleys of Jerusalem (after Vincent).............+.. 81 
241 Underground Jebusite Tunnel at Gihon, Jerusalem (after Vincent)... 82 
242 Maudsley’s Scarp, Jerusalem. ..; 0... .. 10 viene 82 
243 Plan of Solomon’s Buildings, Jerusalem (after Stade)..............- 83 
244 Phoenician Quarry-Marks, Jerusalem (after Warren)............... 83 
245 Shaft at the Southeast Corner of the Temple Area (after Warren)... 84 
246 Examining Ancient Walls in an Underground Tunnel (after Warren). 84 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 7 


FIGURE PLATE 
247 Front Views of Solomon’s Temple (after Stade). ..........cceceees 85 
248 Side Views of Solomon’s Temple (after Siade)..........cccccceuee 85 
249 Plan of Solomon’s Temple (after Stade)........ 0... ccc cccecccaces 86 
250 The Seven-branched Lamp-Stand from the Arch of Titus.......... 86 
251 The Brazen Laver of Solomon’s Temple (after Stade).............. 87 
252 A Portable Laver of Solomon’s Temple (after Siade)............... 87 
253 Stone-Work of a Wall of Jerusalem built in the Fifth Century a.p... 88 
254 Stone-Work in Nehemiah’s Wall, Jerusalem...................... 88 
255 Restoration of the Asmonzan Bridge over the Tyropceon Valley 
eR ee ET os as ae i sa eae eco eae< Taye sews 89 
256 Front of ‘ David’s Tower” (Herod’s Palace) Today (after Breen).... 89 
257 Reconstruction of Herod’s Temple (after Caldecott)................ 90 
ee NAOH DIES CRT, 2) goals 5 ob ba Sey cee degeaccdoebelves 90 
259 One of the Supposed Pools of Bethesda (after Hanauer)............ 91 
260 Front of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher....................... 91 
261 ‘“Gordon’s Calvary,” looking toward Jerusalem (after Breen)....... 92 
262 ‘‘Gordon’s Calvary,” from the City Wall (after Breen)............. 92 
263 Outside of “Gordon’s Holy Sepulcher”’ (after Breen).............. 93 
264 Inside of ‘‘Gordon’s Holy Sepulcher” (after Breen)............... 93 
mmenetnr atin (AANA) DAariaSCus... 2... oo cs cs cc cc ccceccacececce 94 
Boum. gemtreeu called straight, Damascus................cecececcace 94 
Pomerasece at manatha (after Briinnow)..... 0.0.5. a ccc cccccuccccee 95 
268 Circular Forum and Colonnaded Street, Gerasa.................- 95 
perme etre ee out, GCTAGA. Cc ica cca cc ev cece cudcecccwss 96 
eee AA ACINOL. «le ce cnc cee eccanvcesaace 96 
271 Theater at Amman (Palestinian Philadelphia).................... 97 
armbar iy at ACHENS 5 ks ce ee en caccceccucves 97 
ME MU NGNS ce ok. le scene's s ccd e sav ncecevccecceaceens 98 
emp rainremam the ngota, Corinth... .. 0.6. e rc ccc saccececcccveces 98 
275 Lintel of Jewish Synagogue, Corinth (after Richardson)............ 99 
276 lLechzeum Road, Corinth (after Richardson)............ccceccccces 99 
error arimenon, Acnens, from the East... 2.6.2.0 ¢h..csecceeecevceecs 100 
EAT IN CPOE AE ACONOSUS oo ook cc ve cnn cen sivewcnccaeuubecsun 100 
aro site othe Temple of Diana, Ephesus, in 1902...............0-00 101 
AMIE MTOP AIUIMESUIS. 6... «2 os acne c's. e 04 co vin alta e vuwLRS SD ene vis 101 
Meme mI LNCALeT, FODMeSUS, .. 2... cc awe cases vecntvebalscwesaces 102 
MMMM NESUS 2... ke cee tence dca entcevsewecsece vues 102 
Me MSETERSNIT LOPtES RAMSAY) 2.60 do cas ss oa sos nals dies cbdua oeleavecs 103 
284 The Acropolis and partly Excavated Temple, Sardis (after Butler). 103 
285 Excavated Temple, Sardis, looking toward the Hermus Valley (after 
neon MmnereMrer ren ee ee at et eee. a cue biOn tome el 104 
gene Christian Church at Sardis (after Butler)... 2... co's <scacecese: 105 
NCE AYES ROINSOY) «oc. 5 ss'a cou Cian ebm olae> 6 avian ddie Pa eeu 105 


8 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
FicurE PLATE 
288 A Ruin at Laodicea (after Ramsay).....+..5..0asaee ee 106 
289 A Bridge over the Jordan on the Line of a Roman Road........... 106 
290 Fragment of a Creation-Tablet... .. 2... ou. eee 107 
291 Assyrian Sacred Tree Conventionalized..... 7. (i355 107 
292 Hammurapi Receiving the Laws from the Sun-God........ sates 107 
293. The So-called Adam and Eve Seal...:......... Upeu es  e 107 
294 A Tablet from Nippur, Relating the Beginnings of Irrigation and 
Agriculture (after Langdon). ......+«+ «helen + nee 108 
295 Top of the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser. . //. 9.03 sce 108 
296 Jehu of Israel Doing Homage to Shalmaneser...................- 108 
297. The Siloam Inscription:......0....../...5 coe a 109 
298 Sennacherib Receiving Tribute at Lachish (after Ball)............. 109 
299 An Altar to Unknown Gods (after Deissmann)..........02020-0008 110 
300. The Moabite Stone: ....4 2... cues noe ne 110 
301 Papyrus Containing Sayings of Jesus (after Grenfell and Hunt)...... 111 
302 Babylonian Seal Containing the Name “Israel”................ 112 
303 Inscription on Synagogue Floor at Ain Duk.................... 112 
304 Statue of King Tutankhamen.. ...2.¥.7 0023 ee 113 
305 Back Panel of Throne of King Tutankhamen.................. 114 
306 Ziggurat at Ur... 56... e045. ses 4) ae oh eee ee 114 
307 Stairway of Ziggurat of Ur... .... 2... une 115 
308. The “Cannon” of Ashkelon......... 2965 006) 116 
309 Tell el-Ful; Pier from the Third Fortress at Gibeah........... 116 
310 Excavation on the Hill Ophel, Jerusalem..................... 117 
311 An Inscription Found in Jerusalem Thought to Refer to the Syn- 
agogue of the Libertines (After Weill) .....2.....4. 45 u5 ee 117 
312 The Chalice of Antioch, a General View..........ecccsceccee 118 
313 The Chalice of Antioch, an Enlarged Section..................-.. 119 
314 Temple of Elberith and the Holy Circle at Shechem............. 120 
315 Cyclopean Corner of Holy Circle of the Temple of Elberith at Shechem 121 
316 Stele of Ramses IT from Beisan.:.. ... 4.3 eee 122 
317 Excavation at Antioch in Pisidia. Looking over Byzantine Church 
in the foreground, up the steps of the Propylea to the Rock Semi- 
circle back of the Great Temple... ... yay. ee 123 
318 Antioch in Pisidia. Square of Tiberius, from the Northeast....... 123 
319 Map showing probable course of “Third Wall” at Jerusalem....... 124 
320 Section of Great Wall at Tell En-Nasbeh Excavated by Dean Badé. 124 
MAPS 
Map of Egypt to First: Cataract... .> 1c 0. eee Facing page 18 
Map of the Ancient: World; :..4\.-5.<45 eee Facing page 42 


Map of Palestine... .....00. es eees 0h Facing page 118 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 9 


PLATE 
Map of Jerusalem in the Time of the Jebusites and David...... 125 
Pero wmOn Jerusalem... 2... i.e ieee cos oececccceu. 125 
Map of Jerusalem from Hezekiah to the Exile.................. 126 
PaeroteNehemiah’s Jerusalem... ... 0.0.6. ..e ces escccecccene. 126 
Bemeerrenemronsean Jerusalem... .. 2 esses ccc scecececdecce,. 127 


col. 


—— 


EXPLANATION OF SIGNS— 


section. 

the same. 

work cited. 

and following page. 

and following pages. 

compare. 

verse. 

column. 

page. 

in translations of tablets indicate words supplied where not de- 
cipherable. 


. in translations of tablets indicate missing line or words which can- 


not be supplied. 


I 


INTRODUCTION 


ONE who would write on archeology and the Bible must at the 
outset define the scope of his undertaking, for the word archeology 
conveys different meanings to different people. Judgments also 
differ as to how things ancient can best serve the interests of the 
Biblical student. To many the word archeology calls up visions 
of ancient pottery, jewelry, swords, utensils, etc., which are valued 
as objects of curiosity simply because they are old. Others, when 
they think of archeology, call to mind excavations, in which the 
walls of ancient temples and cities are laid bare, so that we may see 
how men lived in other days. To such, archeology is identical with 
antiquarianism. A book on archeology and the Bible written from 
this point of view would confine itself to the way in which texts of 
Scripture are illustrated or illumined by antiquarian objects. 

To still others the word archeology calls up ancient tablets or 
papyri, inscribed with hieroglyphics or some other strange charac- 
ters, from which the initiated can decipher texts that prove the 
truth of one’s views of Scripture. According to this view, arche- 
ology is the science of ancient documents, and a book dealing with 
archeology and the Bible should confine itself to the discussion of 
documents which confirm or illustrate the Biblical text. 

Those who hold either of these views of archeology will find 
in this book much that will accord with their expectations, but 
much also that will seem to them irrelevant. In Part I, Chapters 
IV, VI-XII deal with antiquities, their discovery, and the light 
which these shed upon the inspired page, for antiquarianism is a 
part of archeology. Portions of Part I are devoted to the dis- 
covery of inscribed objects; in Part II the reader will find a full 
presentation of the bearing of these upon the different parts of the 
Sacred Volume. Those who hold the second of the views men- 
tioned above will not, therefore, be disappointed. 

Neither of the views mentioned corresponds, however, with the 
limits of archeology. Archeology is “that branch of knowledge 
which takes cognizance of past civilizations, and investigates their 

11 


12 INTRODUCTION 


history in all fields, by means of the remains of art, architecture, 
monuments, inscriptions, literature, language, implements, cus- 
toms, and all other examples which have survived.’ This defini- 
tion is accepted by the writer of this work and has guided him in the 
preparation of the following pages. It has, of course, been impos- 
sible in one volume to deal adequately with the antiquities and the 
ancient documents and to treat fully the history of the civilizations 
of the Biblical countries, but an endeavor has been made to place 
the reader in possession of an intelligent point of view with reference 
to these things. As the physical structure of a country determines 
to a large degree the nature of its buildings, the utensils employed 
by its inhabitants, their writing materials, and their relations with 
other peoples,—as well as the way the objects were preserved from 
ancient to modern times,—brief descriptions of the physical fea- 
tures of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Palestine, the three most 
prominent of Biblical countries, have been introduced. 

Our knowledge of the early history of Egypt and Babylonia has 
come almost wholly from archzological exploration; it has seemed 
fitting, therefore, to introduce in Part I, Chapter I, $6, and Chapter 
II, § 6, brief sketches of the history of these countries. This ap- 
peared all the more necessary since the inhabitants of these two 
countries worked out, in advance of any other peoples, the initial 
problems of civilization. Palestine borrowed from them both, so 
that it is impossible to understand the history and archeology 
of Palestine apart from Egyptian and Babylonian antecedents. 
Whenever it is possible the reader should supplement these sketches 
by reference to the larger works cited in the notes. 

Similarly in Part I, Chapter V, an outline of the history of Pales- 
tine from the earliest times is presented. To some this may seem 
unnecessary, since centuries of that history passed before the 
Hebrew people came to the country, but it is hoped that every 
reader will be glad to know the various vicissitudes through which 
passed the land that was chosen by God as the home of the religious 
leaders of the human race. This history also gives emphasis to the 
promise “‘to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst 
not, and houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and 
cisterns hewn out, which thou hewedst not, vineyards and olive- 
trees, which thou plantedst not” (Deut. 6 : 10, 11). 

Some, too, may be surprised that the chronologies of Egypt and 

1Century Dictionary, edition of 1903, Vol. I, p. 293. 


NE 


INTRODUCTION 13 


Babylonia and Assyria should be treated as fully as they are in 
Part I, Chapter I, § 5, and Chapter IT, § 5, but in the writer’s view 
this treatment was necessary and appropriate for several reasons: 
(1) The data on which these chronologies are built up are for the 
most part the fruits of archeological research. (2) They are our 
only means of measuring the antiquity of civilization, since the 
Bible itself affords no continuous system of chronology.! If the 
student of the Bible is to have any intelligent idea of what “the 
fulness of time” (Gal. 4 : 4) means, he should know what the sources 
of our chronology are and how they are rightly used. (3) Such a 
presentation seemed all the more necessary because in many books, 
especially those of some English Egyptologists, the materials are 
employed uncritically, and civilization is made to appear much older 
than it really is. 

To accomplish all these aims the writer has adopted the following 
plan: In three chapters the archeology, history, and civilization of 
Egypt, Babylonia and Assyria, and the Hittites are briefly treated, 
together with the discoveries which especially interest the Biblical 
student. These are the three great civilizations which preceded the 
Israelitish. Amuchmore detailed treatment is given to Palestine, to 
which Chapters IV-XIV of Part I are devoted. In the last chapter 
of Part I an attempt has been made to present the discoveries in 
Greece and Asia Minor which throw light on the New Testament. 
In Part II the texts, Babylonian, Assyrian, Egyptian, Hebrew, 
Moabitish, Phoenician, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin, which bear on 
the Bible, are translated. They are arranged in the order of the 
Biblical books which they illuminate. Each translation is accom- 
panied by a brief discussion in which its chief bearing on the Bible is 
pointed out. 

In conclusion it may not be out of place to offer a word of guid- 
ance to two or three classes of readers. Those who are not inter- 
ested in the history of Babylonia and Egypt, but wish simply to 
know what has been discovered in those countries which throws 
light on the Scriptures, should turn at once to Part I, Chapter I, §7, 
and Chapter IIT, § 7, and to the translations of the various texts in 
Part II. A reader that is interested especially in Palestine, rather 
than in the ancient civilizations to which the Hebrews were indebted, 
should begin Part I at Chapter IV. Possibly after he has read that 


1 The chronology of Archbishop Usher, printed in the margin of many Bibles, is not a part 
of the Biblical text, but a collection of seventeenth century calculations and guesses. 


14 INTRODUCTION 


which the Holy Land has contributed to the understanding of the 
Bible, he may be ready to give a little attention to such outlying 
peoples as the Egyptians, Babylonians, and Hittites. In that case 
he will turn back and read Chapters I-III. 

Pastors or Sunday-school teachers who wish to employ the book 
as a tool by means of which to study certain texts or lessons should 
follow a different course. These will be able with the aid of the full 
index of Scripture references to turn at once to all the material 
bearing on the passage in question. If the use of this index does 
not afford all the information desired, reference should then be made 
to the analytical table of contents at the beginning, or to the 
index of subjects at the end, or to both. 

It is the writer’s hope that, in addition to its use as a book of refer- 
ence for the elucidation or illustration of individual texts, there may 
be some who will enjoy reading the whole work, and who will find, 
as he himself has found, that every scrap of knowledge of ancient 
life in Bible lands serves to make the Bible story and the lives of 
Biblical characters so much more real, or puts them or their words 
in a perspective so much more clear, that the eternal message comes 
with new power and can be transmitted with greater efficiency. 


PART I 


THE BIBLE LANDS, THEIR EXPLORATION, 
AND THE RESULTANT LIGHT ON THE 
BIBLE AND HISTORY 


ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


CHAPTER I 
EGYPT 


THE LAND. THE PRESERVATION OF ANTIQUITIES. EGYPTIAN Discovertes. DE- 
CIPHERMENT. CHRONOLOGY. OUTLINE OF THE History: The pre-dynastic period, 
The archaic period. The old kingdom. The first period of disintegration. The 
middle kingdom. Second period of disintegration. The empire period. The period 
of foreign dynasties. The lower empire. The Persian period. The Ptolemaic period. 
The Roman period.. Ecyptian Discovertes WaicH BEAR ON THE BIBLE: Texts 
bearing on the story of Joseph. The Invasion of Egypt by the Hyksos. The El- 
Amarna letters. Period of the Oppression and the Exodus. Campaign of Sheshonk I. 
Papyri discovered at Elephantine. The palace of Hophra. The castle at Tahpanhes. 
The Jewish temple at Leontopolis. Papyri from Oxyrhynchus. Discoveries in Nubia. 


1. The Land.—Egypt is in many ways unique among the 
countries of the world. One of these unique features is its form. 
If we omit the Delta, it has but one dimension,—length. From 
Cairo to the First Cataract is a distance of 583 miles, while the 
breadth of the valley, including the barren lands on each side of 
it, varies from 123 to 31 miles. If we include Nubia to the Fourth 
Cataract, which the Egyptians ultimately conquered, the length 
is much greater, being about 1,100 miles. In Nubia the banks 
are much more precipitous, the valley varying from 5 to 93 miles. 
The verdant portion is, however, often not more than a mile in 
width. 

This land is flanked on each side by extensive barren deserts 
on which there is almost no rainfall. Egypt itself would be a part 
of this desert, were it not for the overflow of the Nile. This 
overflow is caused by the peculiar formation of this marvelous 
river. 

The upper part of the Nile consists of two main branches, called, 
respectively, the White and the Blue Nile. The White Nile rises 
3 degrees south of the equator, some 4,000 miles south of the 
Mediterranean, to the south of Lake Victoria Nyanza. This 
region is watered by tropical rains, which fall almost daily. This 

17 


18 ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


steady water supply gives to the Nile its constant volume. At 
Khartum, 1,350 miles from the Mediterranean in a direct line, 
and 1,650 miles as the river winds, the White Nile is joined by the 
Blue Nile. This branch of the river drains a large part of Abys- 
sinia, an upland and mountainous region which has a dry and a 
rainy season. In the dry season this stream dwindles almost to 
nothing; in the rainy season it is a turbid mountain torrent, which 
rushes impetuously onward, laden with loose soil from all the land 
which it drains. For this reason it is called the Blue, 7. ¢., the 
Dark or Turbid, Nile. 

At a distance of 140 miles north of the union of the two Niles 
the river receives its only other tributary, the Atbara, which also 
flows in from the eastern side. The Atbara, like the Blue Nile, 
is an insignificant stream except in the rainy season, when it is a 
torrent. 

It is the variation of the water supply from the Blue Nile and 
Atbara which causes the overflow of the river in Egypt. At the 
beginning of June the river begins slowly to swell; between the 
15th and the 20th of July the increase becomes very rapid; toward 
the end of September the water ceases to rise and remains at the 
same height for twenty to thirty days. In October it rises again, 
attaining its greatest height. It then decreases, and in January, 
February, and March the fields gradually dry off. This overflow 
prepares the soil of Egypt for cultivation, first by softening it and 
then by fertilizing it. It was easy, under these conditions, to 
develop agriculture there. 

Indeed, the width of productive Egypt is determined by the 
lateral extent of this overflow. For the last 1,500 miles of its 
course the Nile receives no tributary. It plows its way through 
regions of desert which, but for the Nile itself, are unbroken. 
At six points, beginning at Khartum and ending at Assuan, the 
river makes its way over granite ridges, through which it has never 
succeeded in cutting a smooth channel. These are called the 
Cataracts. As civilized man discovered these from the north, 
that at Assuan is known as the First Cataract, and that at Khartum 
as the Sixth. The calendar of ancient Egypt was shaped in part 
by the Nile. The year was divided into three seasons of four 
months each. Beginning with the rise of the water about July 19th, 
there was the season of the inundation, which was followed by 
four months of winter and four months of summer. 


LEHG TUE LON YR of Creeantce 


Be tay 


4t Arish 


oa 

Ma Pic Querrees | 

Seiten sade Queeries | 
ronan te MPHIS (NORTE 
Boeturd BS OWHITE WALL, d 


Pyrtmis i 
DESERT 


BAPHRODITOPOLIS 


ARSINOE crocom ae ‘ge 


Medinet ol Fi 


ero 
El-Bersheh Tombs 
UAT NUB (Quarry) 

Asarae Shiekh Sa*id Tombs 


ae 


WPTOS Wad? Foakhir 
EE a RE BIE 


Oey of Besre, 
NS 


Medinet Me r 
HERMONT sig 


FUPHOM, 


i 
ple of Sees I 


Station an 
- 
} 


Pr steer fi : i © 
Canis f EILEFTHYIAPOLIS 
bt! Ad HEKIEB) + 


SCALE OF ENGLISH MILES 
50 


BEFERENCE 


» Mounds of riucns } 
b Ayrarerns | ¢ | 
+ Rack cat tombs j 7 
0 Modren hamlet Village or City | | 
wm Railroad i 

. Anceat names as ARSINGE ! 
Modera names as Fuyvre | 


Misy ene 
Gland of ELEPHANTINE fi 
Is Leland of Schet $M nod! foam 


aa «i i oogt 


Map or Ecvypet. 


EGYPT 19 


In late geologic time all Egypt north of Cairo was a bay of the 
Mediterranean. In the course of the centuries the sea has been 
driven out by deposits of detritus brought down by the Nile. 
As the mud was deposited in this level region, the water continued 
to make its way through it here and there. Several mouths were 
kept open, and thus the Delta was formed. This Delta is called 
Lower Egypt. Upper Egypt extends from Cairo to the First 
Cataract; Nubia, from the First Cataract to the Sixth. 

2. The Preservation of Antiquities——Rain in Egypt is very, 
very rare. One might almost say that it never rains. The 
country lies in a latitude so far south that frost is rarely known. 
These two conditions have united to preserve the ruins of many 
ancient buildings in both Egypt and Nubia in a state of perfec- 
tion which is rare in other countries. It was the custom of the 
ancient Egyptians to bury their dead in the dry land beyond the 
reach of the Nile’s overflow. Like many other peoples, they 
placed in the tombs of their dead many objects used by the de- 
parted in life. Further, their peculiar beliefs concerning im- 
mortality led them to mummify the bodies of the departed; 7. e., 
they fortified them against decay. Thus archeological objects 
have been preserved in Egypt in an abundance and a perfection 
without parallel. So many of these are massive temples of stone, 
which, through all the ages, have stood unconcealed as silent wit- 
nesses of a past greatness, that from Cairo to the First Cataract 
Egypt is one great archeological museum. 

3. Egyptian Discoveries.—Although many Egyptian antiqui- 
ties have always been visible, they attracted little attention 
until modern times. Egyptian temple walls are covered with 
hieroglyphic writing, but the art of reading it had long been lost. 
Coptic, a language descended from the ancient Egyptian, was 
still preserved as the sacred language of the Egyptian Church, as 
Latin is the ecclesiastical language of Roman Catholics, but no 
one realized that Coptic was simply late Egyptian. 

In the seventeenth century European travelers began to bring 
home Egyptian antiquities. In 1683 a specimen of Egyptian art 
was presented to the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. In the 
eighteenth century R. Pococke (1704-1765) and F. L. Norden 
(1704-1742) described a number of Egyptian ruins and identified 
a number of the sites mentioned by classical authors. Pococke 
was an Englishman and Norden a Dane. Others, like the ex- 


20 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


plorer Bruce, who was seeking the sources of the Nile (1768-1773), 
participated to some extent in the work. 

No systematic examination of the antiquities was made, how- 
ever, until the time of Napoleon I. When Napoleon invaded 
Egypt in 1798, he was accompanied by an army of eminent schol- 
ars and artists, nearly a hundred strong, and although in the 
settlement with England, which followed in 1802, the French 
were compelled to surrender their archeological treasures to 
Great Britain, they were permitted to publish the results of their 
observations and “explorations. The publication of these ad- 
vanced slowly, but between 1809 and 1822 the great work, con- 
sisting of one volume of introduction, three volumes of plates, 
and three volumes of texts, was given to the world. In these 
volumes the antiquities from the First Cataract to Alexandria 
were systematically described, and many of them were repro- 
duced in magnificent water-color illustrations. As the nine- 
teenth century progressed, additional discoveries were made, 
partly by the labors of such scientists as Lepsius and Mariette, 
and partly through the rifling of tombs by natives, who often sold 
their finds to Europeans. Since Egypt passed under English 
control, exploration has been fostered by the government, and 
English, French, German, Italian, and American explorers have 
taken part in it. The tombs of many of the ancient Pharaohs, 
the mummies of a considerable number of them, all sorts of im- 
plements and household furniture, have been discovered, as well 
as a great variety of historical, literary, religious, and business 
documents. 

Within the last twenty years a series of tombs of a previously 
unknown type has been discovered. The bodies buried in these 
tombs did not lie on the back as the ordinary Egyptian mummy 
does, but on the side, with the knees drawn up to the chin. It 
was at first thought that these tombs were the work of a new race 
of men who had invaded Egypt at some time in the historical 
period, but further study indicates that they are the tombs of the 
early Egyptians from whom the Egyptians known to history were 
descended. 

4. Decipherment.—One of the objects found by the French 
at the time of Napoleon’s expedition was the “Rosetta Stone,” 
so called because found at Rosetta (Ar-Rashid), a town near the 
mouth of the westernmost of the large branches of the Nile. This 


EGYPT | 21 


stone was set up about 200 B. c. by some priests, who expressed, 
through the inscription which it bore, their thanks to the young 
king, Ptolemy V, because certain taxes formerly imposed on them 
had been remitted. The inscription was written in three kinds 
of writing—hieroglyphic Egyptian (picture-writing), demotic 
Egyptian (developed from picture-writing), and Greek; (see F ig. 
14). It was among the objects which the English took in 1802, 
and had been placed in the British Museum. Although the Greek 
portion of the inscription could be easily read, the attempts of 
various scholars, through a period of twenty years, had succeeded 
in establishing the values of only a few characters of the Egyptian. 
In 1818 Jean Francois Champollion, a French scholar, who before 
this had busied himself with the study of Coptic and Egyptian 
geography, began the study of the Rosetta Stone. He assumed. 
that the language of the upper registers must be an older form 
of the Coptic tongue. By a most painstaking comparison of the 
characters in the upper registers with the Coptic equivalents of 
the words in the lower or Greek register, he succeeded in deciph- 
ering the long-forgotten writing of ancient Egypt. He published 
his discovery in 1822. Thus the door to the historical] and literary 
treasures of ancient Egypt was unlocked, and from that time to 
this the study of Egyptian inscriptions and documents has gone 
steadily forward. Many universities now maintain chairs of 
Egyptology. The ability to read Egyptian has opened up vistas 
of history of which men had hitherto no conception. 

5. Chronology.—We are dependent for our main outline of 
Egyptian chronology upon the work of Manetho, an Egyptian 
priest, who lived about 250 B. c., and wrote a chronicle of his 
native land in the Greek language. He grouped the kings of 
Egypt from the time of Menes (or Mena) to the conquest of 
Alexander the Great (332 B. c.) into thirty-one dynasties. Man- 
etho’s dynasties enable scholars to determine the relative order of 
the kings, and thus form the backbone of our chronology. Around 
his statements the discoveries of the excavators and explorers are 
grouped. Manetho’s work has not, however, come down to us. 
We know it only through quotations in the Chronographiai of 
Julius Africanus (221 a. p.) and the Chronicon of Eusebius of 
Cesarea (265-340 a. p.). The number of years assigned to each 
king, and consequently the length of time covered by the dynas- 
ties, differ in these two copies, so that, while the work of Manetho 


4 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


forms the backbone of our chronology, it gives us no absolutely 
reliable chronology. It is for this reason that the chronological 
schemes of modern scholars have differed so widely. 

Another source of chronological information is the so-called 
“‘Palermo Stone,’’ which is preserved in the Museum of Palermo, 
Sicily. This stone is a hard diorite, and is but a fragment of the 
original. It was inscribed about the middle of the fifth dynasty, 
and originally contained a list of the kings of Egypt from a time 
long before Mena to the middle of the fifth dynasty. Though 
now but a fragment, it is still of great value for the period which 
it covers. In addition to this, we also have the King List of 
Karnak, set up by Thothmes III, of the eighteenth dynasty, the 
King List of Abydos, inscribed by Seti I and Ramses II, of the 
nineteenth dynasty, and the King List of Sakkarah, inscribed by 
Ramses II. As these are all simply selections from the list of 
the predecessors of their authors, they are of secondary importance. 
The ‘Turin Papyrus” would be of value chronologically, but for 
its unfortunate history. This papyrus originally contained the 
most complete list of Egyptian kings that has come down to us, 
with the exception of Manetho’s chronology. It formed part of 
the collection of M. Drovetti, the French Consul-General in 
Egypt. The collection was offered to the French government 
in 1818, but was finally purchased by the king of Sardinia. When 
the collection arrived in Turin, it was found that this papyrus was 
broken into small fragments in the bottom of the box in which it 
had been shipped. The fragments were afterward (1824) examined 
by Champollion the younger, who discovered their true char- 
acter. In 1826 another Egyptologist went to Turin and joined 
the fragments; but the science of Egyptology was then in its 
infancy, and he in his ignorance joined pieces which did not natu- 
rally belong together. For this reason it is only occasionally that 
the document yields us any chronological data. 

The greatest aid in fixing Egyptian chronology is the “Sothic 
Cycle.” At an early date the Egyptians adopted a calendar 
which made up a year of 365 days. Their year originally began 
when the rapid ri in BS Nile coincided with the rising of the 
star Sirius, ae pa cht "WSPfis, These events coincided on 
July 19th." "As their calendar made no allowance for leap year, 
in four years their new year began a day too soon, in eight years 
two days too soon, and soon. In 1,460 years (i. e., 365 X 4) their 


EGYPT ! 23 


New Year’s Day would make a complete circuit of the year. These 
periods of 1,460 years are called Sothic Cycles. Censorinus, in Chap- 
ters XVIII and XXI of his De Die Natali, written in 238 a. p., 
tells us that a new Sothic cycle began at some time between 140 
and 144.a.p. If a new cycle began in 140 a. p., the previous one 
began in 13208. c.; the one before that, in 2780 B. c.; and the one 
before that,—if they had their calendar so early,—in 4240 zB. c. 
Reisner holds that the Egyptians adopted their calendar in 2780 
B. C., but Meyer and Breasted hold that it is unthinkable that they 
should have been without a calendar until that time, as by that 
date the civilization of the pyramid builders was at its height; 
they accordingly maintain that the Egyptian calendar was adopted 
in 4240 B. c. 

An illustration will show how the Sothic cycle helps in deter- 
mining dates. A priest in the 120th year of the twelfth dynasty 
wrote a letter to his subordinates, to inform them that the rising 
of Sothis would occur on the fifteenth day of the eighth month. 
As there were thirty days in each month, the year diverged at this 
time 225 days. This date, then, was just 900 years after the be- 
ginning of the cycle in 2780 B. c.; 7. e., the letter was written in the 
year 1880 B. c. It proves that the twelfth dynasty began in 
2000 B. c., and fixes for us all the dates of that dynasty. The 
calendar in the so-called Papyrus Ebers shows that in the tenth 
year of Amenophis I, of the eighteenth dynasty, the divergence 
had increased to 308 days. This must have been 1,232 years 
after the beginning of the cycle, which was the year 1548 B. c. 
Data gained from these sources are supplemented by what is called 
dead reckoning; 7. e., by adding together all the specific dates of 
the length of reigns which are given in the inscriptions, and test- 
ing them by collateral references. Meyer and Breasted have 
worked out the chronology from these data in this way. Meyer 
places the accession of Mena at 3200 B. c., while Breasted places 
it at 3400 B. c. This difference is slight when compared with the 
differences in the chronologies of the older Egyptologists. 

6. Outline of History.'—The history of Egypt, as it concerns 
our subject, extends over a period of five thousand years. It falls 
into twelve periods: 


1For fuller accounts of the history of Egypt, see Breasted’s History of the Ancient Egyptians, 
New York, Scribner’s, 1908; or Breasted’s History of Egypt, second edition, 1909, New York, 
Scribner’s. 


24 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


(1) The Pre-Dynastic Period, which we suppose extended from 
about 5000 B. c., or earlier, until about 3400 B. c., is the period 
before that covered by Manetho’s dynasties. At the beginning of 
this period Egypt was divided into 42 districts, which the Egyp- 
tians called spt or hsp, and which the Greeks afterwards called 
nomes. Each nome was occupied by a different tribe, which at 
the first lived in isolation from the other tribes. Each tribe had 
its god, to which an animal was sacred. This condition prevailed 
for so many centuries that the customs of this time became per- 
manently fixed. The sacredness of these animals continued right 
down to Roman times. During this period the dead were buried 
on their sides with the knees drawn up to the chin; (see Fig. 8). 
The Egyptians of this period lived partly by hunting, partly by 
fishing, and partly by agriculture. From objects found in their 
tombs welinfer that they used stone implements, wore a great 
many beads, made implements and combs of bone, made 
decorated pottery, constructed boats for use on the Nile and 
fitted sails to them, and each tribe had its own standard or 
emblem. Of course, during the centuries when Egypt was so 
politically divided there were many wars between nome and 
nome. 

After some centuries, through the conquest of one nome by 
another, these 42 nomes were consolidated into two kingdoms. 
The 20 nomes of the Delta formed the kingdom of Lower Egypt; 
the 22 nomes, which were ranged along the Nile from Cairo to the 
First Cataract, formed the kingdom of Upper Egypt. The symbol 
of Upper Egypt was a papyrus plant; that of Lower Egypt, the 
bee. The crown of Upper Egypt was a kind of tall helmet; that 
of Lower Egypt, a diadem of openwork; (see Figs. 2, 3, and 4). 

At what period this union of the nomes into two kingdoms 
occurred, we can only conjecture. Probably it was as early as 
4200 or 4300 8B. c. At all events, the two kingdoms existed sepa- 
rately for so long a time that their memory was ever afterward 
preserved. To the end of Egyptian history the kings bore the 
title, “king of Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt.” Even in the 
Hebrew of the Old Testament the name for Egypt is literally 
“The two Egypts.” In this long pre-dynastic period the people 
were gradually emerging from savagery toward civilization. 
They were solving the initial problems of civilized life. According 
to Meyer and Breasted the people of Lower Egypt had progressed 


EGYPT | 25 


far enough before 4200 z. c. to invent a calendar which approxi- 
mately coincided with the solar year. 

(2) The Archaic Period.—The history of united Egypt begins 
with the reign of Menes or Mena, who in some way, whether by 
conquest or marriage is uncertain, united the two crowns. He 
came from the nome of This, of which the city of Abydos, sacred 
to the worship of Osiris, was the chief town. He and his suc- 
cessors continued to administer the two parts of Egypt as separate 
countries. Mena founded the first dynasty, and the second dy- 
nasty seems to have been connected with his house; it was, at all 
events, from the nome of This. These two dynasties ruled Egypt 
for 420 years, from 3400 to 2980 B. c. This is known as the 
archaic period of Egyptian history. Men were, during this time, 
gradually developing the art of expressing thought by means of 
picture-writing. At some time during the first dynasty the 
Egyptians began to work the turquoise mines in the Wady Mag- 
hara in the peninsula of Sinai. The tombs of this period were 
low, flat houses of brick. The Arabs call them mastabas or 
“benches.” During the second dynasty the Egyptians began to 
conceive of their gods in human form. They preserved the 
continuity of the earlier animal and bird forms by putting the old 
heads on human bodies. 

(3) The Old Kingdom embraces dynasties three to six, and ex- 
tended from 2980 to 2475 zB. c., a period of more than 500 years. 
During the third and fourth dynasties the power of the king was 
supreme and the first great culmination of Egypt’s civilization 
occurred. It was in this period that the pyramids developed. 
Zoser, the first king of the third dynasty, built as his tomb the 
so-called Step Pyramid; (see Fig. 7). It consists of five stages 
which vary from 294 to 36 feet in height. It is not, therefore, 
a true pyramid. At the base it is 352 X 396 feet. Seneferu, the 
last king of the third dynasty, built a similar tomb, but, as he 
made the stages lower and more numerous, it approached more 
nearly the pyramidal form. 

Khufu or Cheops, the founder of the fourth dynasty, improving 
upon the work of his predecessors, constructed the first real pyra- 
mid and the greatest of themall. The blocks with which he built 
were about three feet high, and he made a step with each course 
of stones. A covering, which has now been removed, was originally 
placed over the whole, thus securing a perfect pyramidal form. 


26 ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


This pyramid is now 750 (originally 768) feet on each side, and 
451 (originally 482) feet high. It contains some 2,300,000 blocks 
of stone, each weighing on the average two and a half tons; (see 
Fig. 6). The stone was quarried from the Mokattam hills on the 
other side of the Nile, more than twelve miles away. 

Khafre, the next king but one after Khufu, built the second 
pyramid, which is almost as high as that of Khufu, being 447% 
feet, but measures on the sides but 6903 feet. Within and under 
the pyramids are the tomb chambers. Khafre also carved out 
of the native rock, not far from these two pyramids, the great 
Sphinx, the head of which bore a portrait of himself. From the 
top of the head to the pavement under the paws is 66 feet; the 
breadth of the face is 13 feet 8 inches, and the other parts are in 
proportion. Near the Sphinx stands a temple, built of polished 
granite, which is connected by an underground passage with the 
pyramid of Khafre. All these are silent but eloquent witnesses 
to the skill of the Egyptians of this period in stone work, and to 
the absolute power of the Pharaoh; (see Figs. 5 and 6). 

Menkaure, the next king, constructed a smaller pyramid, the 
side of its base being 3563 feet and its height 204 (originally 219) 
feet. Either his power was less or the resources of the kingdom 
were becoming exhausted. Though the pyramidal form of tombs 
continued for several centuries, no others were ever built that 
approached these in size. | 

The fifth dynasty was founded by a priest of On. During its 
rule the power of the king was not so absolute, and a powerful 
nobility began to develop. These nobles had themselves buried 
in tombs of the old mastaba type, and adorned the walls with 
pictures of the industries which were carried on upon their country 
estates. One of the most famous of these is the tomb of a certain 
Ti, from the pictures in which much has been learned of the various 
industries of ancient Egypt. 

By the time of the sixth dynasty a strong nobility had been 
developed in the different nomes, so that the monarchy was 
thoroughly feudal. The absolute power that the kings of the first 
four dynasties had exercised had passed away. During the sixth 
dynasty the conquest of northern Nubia was begun, an expedition 
was sent to the far-away land of Punt, a country far to the south. 
It was probably the region on both sides of the straits of Bab-el- 
Mandeb, comprising southwestern Arabia and Somaliland. An 


EGYPT 27 


expedition was also sent over sea to Palestine, to chastise the in- 
habitants of the southern portion of that country for invading 
Egypt. The capital of Egypt during the whole of the Old Kingdom 
was Memphis. The city thus gained a prominence which made it 
ever afterward famous. In early times it had been called the 
White Wall, but after the sixth dynasty it was called M en-nofer, 
of which Memphis (Hosea 9: 6) is a corruption. It is in the Old 
Testament more often called Noph, a corruption of the last part 
of thename. (See Isa. 19: 13; Jer. 2:16; 44:1; 46:14, 19; Ezek. 
30:13, 16.) 

(4) The First Period of Disintegration covers dynasties seven to 
ten of Manetho’s list, a period lasting from 2475 to 2160 B. c. At 
the beginning of this period the powerful nobles in the different 
homes seem, many of them, to have set up each a government of 
his own. Thus Egypt was once more resolved into many con- 
tending kingdoms. Through a cycle of 2,500 years a whole circle 
of political evolution had been completed. Starting with 42 chiefs 
or kinglets, the country had first become two kingdoms, then one 
kingdom. In this struggle the local nobility had been eliminated. 
Through nine hundred years the central monarchy was supreme, 
then slowly a new nobility developed, which finally overthrew the 
kingdom and once more made Egypt a group of weak and con- 
tending states. 

During the last two hundred and fifty years of this period of 
darkness we gain some glimpses of a feudal monarchy which had 
its residence at Heracleopolis in central Egypt and controlled a 
good part of the land with varying degrees of success. These 
kings were apparently the ninth and tenth dynasties of Manetho. 

(S) The Middle Kingdom.—About 2160 B. c. an eleventh dynasty 
arose and began to struggle for the supremacy, finally achieving it. 
This family belonged to the nome of Thebes, which had hitherto 
been of no particular importance. It now became the seat of 
government, and remained for 1,500 years one of the most im- 
portant cities of Egypt. 

About the year 2000 this dynasty was followed by the twelfth, 
a powerful line of kings which ruled from 2000 to 1788 B. c. This 
was the period of the great Middle Kingdom. The nobles were 
still strong, and the monarchy was thoroughly feudal in its organ- 
ization. Three of these monarchs bore the name Sesostris. They 
raised Egypt to a high degree of prosperity and power. Trade 


28 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


with Punt was resumed, Nubia was conquered to the Second 
Cataract, which was made the southern frontier of the realm, the 
mines of Sinai were worked, and one of the kings, Amenemhet III, 
built a large temple there, at a point now called Sarbut el-Khadem. 
This temple was explored a few years ago by Petrie. 

Trade with Palestine and Syria flourished during this period. A 
noble of middle Egypt pictured in his tomb some of those who 
came to trade with him. When the pictures were first discovered, 
it was thought that they were the sons of Jacob, come to buy corn 
in Egypt; (see Fig. 1). 

Sesostris III invaded Palestine before 1850 B. c. and captured a 
city which was apparently Shechem, though the spelling of the 
name is peculiar. The kings of this period were buried in tombs 
of pyramidal form, though the pyramids were not large. One of 
them built a great administration building at Hawara, which was 
known to the Greeks as the Labyrinth and was regarded as one of 
the wonders of the world. 

During this and the preceding period a social conscience was 
developed in Egypt which found expression in a remarkable litera- 
ture. Extracts from two examples of this, “The Eloquent 
Peasant” and ‘The Admonitions of Ipuwer,”’ are published in 
Part II, p. 483, ff., 486, ff. 

(6) Second Period of Disintegration.—The thirteenth dynasty, 
which began in 1788 B. c., had not been long upon the throne, when 
powerful rebellions again broke up the kingdom. Petty kinglets 
ruled once more in many parts of the land. These kings comprise 
Manetho’s thirteenth and fourteenth dynasties. The land, dis- 
united, became an easy prey to an invader. Such an invader 
came. For more than 3,000 years Egypt, protected by her deserts, 
had lived her life unmolested. The uncivilized Nubians on the 
south, the Lybians on the west of the Delta, and the uncivilized 


tribes of Sinai had been easily held in check. But now a powerful 


invader came from Asia with a well organized, though barbaric 
army. ‘They conquered Egypt and imposed upon her two dynas- 
ties of kings, who ruled for about a hundred years, until they were 
driven out about 1580 B. c. These kings were Manetho’s fifteenth 
and sixteenth dynasties. He calls them Hyksos, which has been 
held to mean “Shepherd Kings,” but which probably meant 
“Ruler of Countries.””’ They have been generally believed to be 
Semitic, though some scholars now think they may have been of 


a 


EGYPT 7 29 


Hittite origin. In any event, large numbers of Semites came to 
Egypt with them, and left many Semitic names in the Delta. 
Some of these will be discussed below. This invasion broke up 
Egypt’s splendid isolation and brought her into the current of world 
events, from which she was never afterward to free herself. 

(7) The Empire Period—At some time before 1600 B.c. a 
seventeenth dynasty arose at Thebes and began the struggle to ex- 
pel the foreign kings. This was not accomplished until the founder 
of the eighteenth dynasty, Amosis I (1580-1577), achieved it. In 
order to secure freedom from invasion the kings of this dynasty were 
compelled to follow the invaders into Asia, and in time Thothmes 
{II (1501-1447) conquered Palestine, Phcenicia, and Syria to 
the Euphrates, and organized it into a compact empire, which 
held together until about 1360. The kings of this dynasty also 
carried the conquest of Nubia to Napata, at the Fourth Cataract. 
They worked the mines of Sinai, traded with Punt, and inaugu- 
rated the “empire period,” which lasted in reality till well into the 
twentieth dynasty, about 1165, and which, for convenience, we 
count as extending to the fall of the twenty-first dynasty in 945 B. c. 

The foreign conquests brought many immigrants to Egypt and 
also took many Egyptians for longer or shorter periods to foreign 
lands. Egyptian customs in dress as well as the Egyptian language 
changed rapidly during this time. The Asiatic conquests of 
Thothmes III brought Egypt into relations with Asiatic kings, and 
in time his successors, Amenophis III and Amenophis IV, had an 
interesting exchange of letters with kings of Babylon, Assyria, 
Mitanni, and Alashia (or Cyprus), as well as with Egyptian vice- 
Toys in Syria and Palestine. Some of these letters are translated 
in Part II, p. 402, ff. 

Amenophis IV made the first attempt known in history to estab- 
lish a monotheistic religion. Before the time of Amenophis more 
than one of the gods of Egypt had been identified with the sun. 
As the sun seemed to be the giver of all life, Amenophis chose the 
sun disc as the one god. He could not call it by the name of any 
of the old gods without encouraging the older religion which he 
regarded as heathenism, so he gave it the name Aton and tried to 
make the worship of Aton supersede the old cults. As the priest- 
hood of Thebes strenuously opposed his reform, he built a new 
capital in middle Egypt, at what is now called El-Amarna, and 
moved his court thither. In the effort to spread the new religion 


30 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


a new religious literature was called into existence. One of the 
beautiful hymns written at this time is translated in Part II, 
p. 463. Amenophis died before his reform was accomplished, and, 
having no son, was succeeded by two sons-in-law in quick succes- 
sion. ‘The second of these, Tutankhamen, whose tomb was dis- 
covered by Mr. Howard Carter on November 5, 1922, abandoned 
the new capital and the new religion, moved back to Thebes, and 
re-established the worship of the old gods. 

Owing to the prominence given to Mr. Howard Carter’s dis- 
covery by the press, Tutankhamen’s name has become a house- 
hold word throughout the world and many doubtless think him 
the most important king of Egypt. In reality, he was one of the 
lesser kings who lived near the close of the most brilliant period 
of Egyptian history. The significance of the discovery of his tomb 
lies in the fact that it is the first time the tomb of an Egyptian king 
has been found practically unrifled. For more than three thousand 
years the tomb-robbers of Thebes have been the most expert in 
the world, and they entered all royal tombs previously discovered, 
removed most of the important furniture and jewels, and muti- 
lated the royal mummies. In the tomb of Tutankhamen there 
have been found furniture, fabrics, vessels, and jewels, the ex- 
quisite texture and workmanship of which have dazzled the gaze 
of Egyptologists. They far surpass anything that had been im- 
agined. If such things were to be found in the tomb of one of the 
lesser kings, what must have been stored in the graves of the great- 
est and richest monarchs! (See Figs. 304, 305.) 

Beginning with Thothmes I, who died about 1500 B. c., the 
kings of this period were buried in tombs of a new type. These 
were excavated out of the solid rock, cut deep into the mountain- 
side. They were all in the famous Valley of the Tombs of the 
Kings back of Thebes, where Tutankhamen’s tomb was found. 

The nineteenth dynasty succeeded the eighteenth about 1350 
B. C. During a period of weakness between the two, the Asiatic 
dominions had been lost. These were in large part reconquered by 
Seti I and Ramses II. The last-mentioned king ruled 67 years, 
from 1292 to 1225 s. c. He did much building in all parts of 
Egypt and Nubia. Among his enterprises were the cities of Pithom 
and Raamses in the Delta. He has long been thought to have been 
the Pharaoh who oppressed the Hebrews. Early in his reign he 
fought with the Hittites, but afterward made a treaty of peace 


ee ee ee vale 


EGYPT 3 31 


with their king and married his daughter. The text of this treaty 
has been preserved. It is the earliest extant international treaty, 
and it contained an extradition clause, though this applied to 
political offenders only. (For head of Ramses, see Fig. 9.) 

Merneptah, the son and successor of Ramses II, has been sup- 
posed to be the Pharaoh of the Exodus. His hymn of victory over 
his enemies is translated in Part II, p. 338. 

In the reign of Ramses III, of the twentieth dynasty (1198-1167 
B. C.), the Philistines and other tribes, coming from across the sea, 
from Crete and Asia Minor, invaded Egypt. Repulsed by him, 
they invaded Palestine, where they secured a foothold. Ramses 
IV, his successor, was the last Pharaoh to work the mines in Sinai. 
By the reign of Ramses [X (1142-1123 B.c.), Egypt’s Asiatic empire 
was gone and her prosperity had so declined that the natives of 
Thebes took to robbing the tombs of kings for a living. The 
records of the trials of some of these have survived. In the reign 
of Ramses XII (1118-1090 s. c.), Wenamon made his famous ex- 
pedition to Phcenicia, a part of which is narrated in Part II, p. 410, ff. 

The twenty-first dynasty (1090-945 3. c.) was a line of weak 
monarchs, who simply held Egypt together. During their rule 
David built up Israel’s empire. One of them, either Siamon or 
Pesibkhenno IT, was the Pharaoh whose daughter Solomon married. 
(See 1 Kings 3:1, f.; 9:16.) 

(8) The Period of Foreign Dynasties (945-663 8B. c.).—During 
the time of the twenty-first dynasty the Lybians, who for centuries 
had made unsuccessful attempts to invade Egypt, settled in large 
numbers in different parts of the country, and adopted Egyptian 
customs, while some of them became wealthy and powerful. In 
945 B. C. one of these, named Sheshonk, founded the twenty-second 
dynasty. This king is the Shishak of the Bible. It was he who 
gave asylum to Jeroboam, when he fled from Solomon (1 Kings 
11:40), and who in the days of Rehoboam invaded Palestine. 
(See 1 Kings 14 : 25-28.) The dynasty founded by Shishak lasted 
for two hundred years. During the first century of this time it was 
very flourishing. One of its kings, Osorkon II, was apparently an 
ally of Ahab; at all events, a vase bearing Osorkon’s name was found 
at Samaria in Ahab’s palace. This dynasty made its capital at 
Bubastis in the Egyptian Delta, called Pi-beseth in Ezekiel 30 : 17. 

During the last century of this dynasty’s rule Nubia, which had 
been for many centuries under Egyptian sway, gained her inde- 


32 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


pendence under a powerful dynasty which made Napata at the 
Fourth Cataract, its capital. In 745 B. c. the twenty-second 
dynasty was succeeded by the twenty-third, which held a precari- 
ous existence until 718, when it was succeeded by the one king of 
the twenty-fourth. Egypt was during this period in great disorder, 
and in 712 the Nubian kings swept down from the south and con- 
quered the country, establishing the twenty-fifth dynasty. The con- 
trol thus passed from the Lybians to the Nubians. Tirhakah, the 
third king of this dynasty, took part in the wars against Sennacherib 
in Palestine. (See 2 Kings 19 : 9; Isa. 37 : 9, and Part II, p. 435, ff.) 
In 670 Esarhaddon, King of Assyria, invaded Egypt, defeated 
Tirhakah and made all the Delta as far as Memphis an Assyrian 
province. Some years later, when Tanut-amon, the successor of 
Tirhakah, endeavored to regain the Delta, Assurbanipal, of Assyria, 
marched up the Nile, took Thebes, that for 1,500 years had been 
mistress of Egypt, and during much of that time mistress of a large 
part of the then known world, and barbarously sacked it. This 
was in6618B.c. This event made a great impression on surrounding 
nations. It is referred to in Nahum 3 : 8, where Thebes is called 
No-amon, or the city of the god Amon. 

(9) The Lower Empire is the name given by scholars to the 
period of the twenty-sixth dynasty, 663-525 B. c. This dynasty 
was founded by Psammetik I, who became the viceroy of Egypt 
under Assurbanipal, of Assyria, in 663 B. c. Psammetik was 
descended from a native Egyptian family of the city of Sais in the 
western Delta, and a number of his ancestors had been prominent 
in the history of Egypt during the preceding century. At first he 
was a vassal of Assyria, but soon troubles in the eastern part of the 
Assyrian dominions enabled him to make Egypt independent. 
The Egyptians, finding themselves once more free under a native 
dynasty, experienced a great revival of national feeling. Every- 
thing Egyptian interested them. They looked with particular 
affection upon the age of the pyramid builders, who lived more than 
two thousand years before them. ‘They revived old names and old 
titles, and emulated the art of the olden days. They manifested 
such vigor and originality withal, that the art of the lower empire 
rivals that of the best periods of Egyptian history. 

Necho, the son and successor of Psammetichus, endeavored, as © 
Assyria was declining to her fall, to regain an Asiatic empire. 
Josiah, of Judah, who sought to thwart him, was defeated by Necho 


EGYPT | 33 


and killed at the battle of Megiddo in 608 B. c. (2 Kings 23 : 29), 
Necho afterward deposed Jehoahaz and took him captive to 
Egypt (2 Kings 23 : 34). Four years later, when Necho made a 
second campaign into Asia, he was defeated by Nebuchadrezzar 
at Charchemish on the Euphrates, and compelled to hastily retreat 
to Egypt, hotly pursued by the Babylonians. Jeremiah, who per- 
haps caught sight of the rapidly moving armies from the Judean 
hills, has given a vivid account of the flight in Jeremiah 46. Jere- 
miah considered this event so important that he began then to com- 
mit his prophecies to writing. (See Jeremiah 36.) After this 
Necho devoted himself to the internal government of Egypt, 
though he became the patron of an enterprise for the circumnaviga- 
tion of Africa, which was carried out by some Phoenicians. (See 
Herodotus, IV, 42.) Hophra, a later king of this dynasty (588-569 
B. C.), in order to gain influence in Asia, tempted King Zedekiah 
to rebel against Babylon, and thus lured the little state of Judah 
to its destruction. During the reign of Hophra’s successor, Amo- 
sis IT, Cyrus the Great founded the Persian empire, and in 525 B.c. 
Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, overthrew the twenty-sixth dynasty, 
and made Egypt a Persian province. 

(10) The Persian Pervod.—Cambyses, after conquering Egypt, 
attempted in vain to conquer Nubia. The Nubian monarchs at 
this time moved their capital from N apata, at the Fourth Cataract, 
to Meroe, at the Sixth Cataract. Darius (521-485 pz. Cc.) ruled 
Egypt with great wisdom and tact, but under his successors there 
were frequent rebellions. Finally, in 406 B. c., the Egyptians actu- 
ally gained their independence, which they maintained until 342 
B.C. During this period three native dynasties, the twenty-eighth, 
the twenty-ninth, and the thirtieth, successively occupied the 
throne. Manetho counts the Persians as the twenty-seventh 
dynasty. In 342 s. c. the Persians reconquered the country and 
held it for ten years until it was taken by Alexander the Great. 
This ten years of Persian rule constitutes Manetho’s thirty-first 
dynasty. 

(11) The Ptolemaic Period (332-31 8. c.).—For eleven years 
Egypt formed a part of Alexander’s empire. Upon his death, in 
323 B. C., it fell to the control of his general, Ptolemy Lagi, who 
founded a line of Ptolemies that ruled until overthrown by Augustus 
in318B.c. With the accession of the Ptolemies many Greeks settled 
in Egypt; Greek became one of the languages of commerce, and had 


34 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


a considerable influence in transforming the Egyptian language into 
Coptic. Until the year 198 B. c. the Ptolemies controlled Pales- 
tine. Philadelphus, the second of the line, rebuilt in the Greek 
style the city of Rabbah Ammon east of the Jordan, and named it 
Philadelphia. He, like his father, encouraged many Jews to settle 
in Alexandria, and, according to tradition, became the patron of the 
translation of the Old Testament Scriptures into Greek. At all 
events, the Pentateuch was translated in his time, and the trans- 
lation of the other books followed. This translation is known as 
the ‘‘Septuagint” because of the legend that Ptolemy Philadelphus 
set 72 men to translate it. By the beginning of the Christian era 
there were so many Jews in Alexandria that it had become a second 
Judah. 

(12) The Roman Period—The Romans, upon conquering Egypt, 
disturbed in no way the internal affairs of the country. They gave 
it good government and fostered its internal institutions. Many 
old Egyptian customs persisted among the people; it is in regard to 
some of these that discoveries of interest to Biblical scholars have 
been made. From tombs and the places in the dry sands of the 
desert, where waste-baskets were emptied, many records have been 
discovered, some of which are translated in Part II, p. 502, ff., 506, ff. 

Meantime, a state had developed out of the old monarchy of 
Nubia, described above, which was ruled by a woman, whose 
official title was Candace. It was an officer of hers to whom Philip 
preached, as described in Acts 8: 27-39. Recent excavations in 
Nubia have recovered some of the art of these people, who became 
Christian in the second or third century, as well as some inscrip- 
tions of theirs in a script that is not yet deciphered. 

7. Egyptian Discoveries which Bear on the Bible: 

(1) Texts Bearing on the Story of Joseph.—A number of texts 
from the Middle Kingdom and other periods present features simi- 
lar to parts of the story of Joseph and afford somewhat faint paral- 
lels to certain conceptions of the Hebrew Prophets. ‘These are 
translated in Part II, p. 326, ff., and p. 483, ff. 

The name of Joseph’s wife, Asenath (in Egyptian As- eit, 
“favorite of the goddess Neith’’), occurs from the eighteenth dynasty 
onward. Such names as Potiphar, the master of Joseph (Gen. 
39:1), and Potiphera, Joseph’s father-in-law (Gen. 41:45), in 
Egyptian Pedefre, “‘he whom the god Re gives,” as well as the name 
given to Joseph, Zaphenath-paneah (Gen. 41:45), in Egyptian 


EGYPT | 35 


De-pnute-ef-‘onkh, “the god speaks and he lives,” are common in 
Egypt from the beginning of the twenty-second dynasty, 945 B. c. 
(2) The Invasion of Egypt by the Hyksos—This took many 
Semites to Egypt. The very name Hyksos is held by Breasted to 
mean “ruler of countries.” It was probably a title by which these 
kings called themselves, for they evidently ruled a considerable 
portion of western Asia, as well as Egypt. “Ruler of countries” 
is just the Semitic-Babylonian and Assyrian shar-matdti, a title 
which Mesopotamian kings gave to themselves through much of 
their history. It had been employed by the Sumerians before 
them, being the familiar Sumerian Jugal kurkurra, “king of 
countries.” If the Hyksos were Amorites, kinsmen of theirs had 
ruled in Babylonia long before their invasion of Egypt, and that 
these may have been Amorites is indicated by the name Jacob-her, 
which was borne by one of their kings. This is an Egyptian form 
of the Babylonian Yagub-ilu, or Jacob-el, an Amorite name found 
on business documents in Babylonia three or four hundred years 
earlier. In the time of Thothmes III this name was, Thothmes 
tells us, borne by a Palestinian city, to which it had apparently 
been given by some Amorite from Babylonia. Whether the 
Hyksos were Amorites or not, a number of Semitic names were 
given to places in Lower Egypt at the time of their occupation. 
Such was the name Magdol, or Migdol. The Egyptian name of 
Tanis was Zar, which Brugsch claims as Semitic. Thakut, an old 
name of Pithom, is the same as the Semitic Succoth, “booths.” 
In the winter of 1905-1906 Petrie, excavating at Tell el-Ye- 
hudiyeh,! about 20 miles north of Cairo, discovered what he believes 
to have been one of the original encampments of the Hyksos in 
Egypt. This encampment consisted of a large space, averaging 
about 1,500 feet in each direction, surrounded by a wall of sloping 
sand and mud. This wall, varying from 80 to 140 feet wide at the 
top and from 130 to 200 feet wide at the bottom, presented on the 
outer side a long slope, and is quite unlike any structure of the 
native Egyptians. From the nature of the wall and the small 
objects found near it, Petrie infers that it was the rampart of a 
people who defended themselves with bows and arrows. A ceme- 
tery of the same level yielded to the explorer a considerable amount 
of black pottery, not at all like pottery of native Egyptian manu- 
1 See Petrie, Hyksos and the Israelite Cities, London, 1906. 


36 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


facture, and a number of crude scarabs. These objects Petrie 
believes are products of the art of the Hyksos before they had been 
in Egypt long enough to adopt Egyptian civilization. In 1912 
Petrie discovered a similar Hyksos camp at the site of Heliopolis, 
the Biblical On. 

It has been held by many that Abraham, Joseph, and Jacob all 
went to Egypt during the reign of the Hyksos dynasty. It would 
be natural for Semites to enter such a country, if it were ruled by a 
dynasty of the same blood as themselves. Egypt has, however, 
furnished no positive archzological evidence of this view. The 
Semitic names just alluded to, which are sometimes cited as evi- 
dence of it, in reality only prove that many Semites came with the 
Hyksos. They make it probable, indeed, that some of the Hyksos 
were Semites, but give us no positive evidence concerning the 
patriarchs. On the other hand, nothing has been discovered in 
Egypt to disprove this view. 

(3) The El-Amarna Letters —In the winter of 1887-1888 a native 
Egyptian woman, according to one account, accidentally discovered 
some clay tablets in the soil at Tell el-Amarna, about 200 miles 
south of Cairo on the east bank of the Nile. She is said to have sold 
her rights in the discovery for about 50 cents. It was thus that 
nearly four hundred clay tablets, inscribed in the Babylonian lan- 
guage and characters, which opened an entirely unknown vista in 
the history of Palestine and the surrounding countries, were found. 
These were letters written to Kings Amenophis III and Amenophis 
IV, of the eighteenth dynasty. (See § 6 (7).) Seven of them 
were written by Ebed-hepa, King of Jerusalem, about 1360 B. c., 
and give us a glimpse of that city more than 350 years before 
David conquered it for Israel. Others of the letters came from 
other cities of Palestine and Phcenicia, and reveal to us through 
contemporary documents the conditions there in the patriarchal 
age. Some of these are translated in Part II, p. 329, ff. 

(4) Egyptian Monotheism.—The attempt of Amenophis IV to 
establish a monotheistic religion, by compelling all Egyptians to 
worship Aton, has already been described (p. 29). This fact has 
led naturally to comparisons with the monotheism of the Hebrews, 
and, since the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen, it has been 
frequently assumed by some that there was some connection be- 
tween the Aton cult and the religion of the Hebrews. According 
to one theory the Hebrews entered Egypt before the time of the 


EGYPT 37 


eighteenth dynasty, and were in Egypt during the reign of Ameno- 
phis, who was influenced toward monotheism by Moses. This is 
a most improbable theory, as the Biblical references to the op- 
pression of Israel in Egpyt point to the time of the nineteenth 
dynasty rather than to the eighteenth. Others endeavor to show 
that Hebrew monotheism was derived from that of Egypt—a still 
less probable view. There appears to be no real connection be- 
tween Hebrew monotheism and that of Amenophis. His Aton 
was the material sun disc; Jehovah was never so conceived. 

(5) Period of the Oppression and the Exodus.—The statement in 
Exodus 1 : 11 that the Pharaoh who oppressed the Egyptians built 
the store-cities of Pithom and Raamses, indicates that this Pharaoh 
was Ramses II, for Naville, who excavated the site of Pithom 
(Egyptian Pi-twm, ‘House of the god Tum”’) in 1883, found much 
work of Ramses II there, including colossal statues of this king, 
and also found no evidence that there had been any town of im- 
portance on the site before.!. The name of the other city, Raamses, 
also points to the same king, since Ramses I, the only other king of 
the name Egypt had known, reigned less than two years—a time 
insufficient for the building of a city. The Bible evidently refers, 
then, to Ramses II. Concerning Ramses II and his reign much is 
now known, as has been pointed out in § 6 (7); (see Fig. 10). 

All through the nineteenth dynasty peoples from Syria were 
employed by the kings on public works. Among these was a 
people called “pr = Aperu or Apuri, which some have thought to be 
Hebrews. Whether the Hebrews are really mentioned in this way 
is doubted by others, for references to the ‘prw do not cease at the 
time the Exodus of Israel must have occurred. They were em- 
ployed by Ramses IV, of the twentieth dynasty, as late as 1165 B. c. 

Much has been learned from archeology about Egyptian brick- 
making, and it corresponds to the description of it given in Exodus. 
We have pictures of men at the work. Noone thought of burning 
bricks in Egypt. The clay was moulded and dried in the sun. 
Straw was mixed with the clay to increase its adhesive quality. 
Naville says that some of the corners of some of the buildings at 
Pithom were actually built of bricks without straw. (See Exod. 
5: 7-18; and Fig. 11.) 

The name Pithom continued as one of the names of this store- 
city or fortress until at least 250 B.c., for it is found on a pillar 

1 See Naville, The Store-City of Pithom and the Route of the Exodus, 4th ed., London, 1903. 


38 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


which Ptolemy Philadelphus set up there, but side by side with 
this name the place, all through its history, bore the name Thakut, 
which is philologically the Egyptian equivalent of the Hebrew 
Succoth. As this was the first station of the Hebrews when they 
left Egypt (Exod. 12 : 37; 13 : 20; Num. 33:5, 6), Naville holds 
that the Hebrews, after leaving the land of Goshen, must have 
passed out on the south side of the Isthmus of Suez. 

Petrie believes that in the winter of 1905-1906 he discovered the 
city of Raamses! at Tell el-Retabeh, eight miles west of the site of 
Pithom, on the Wady Tumilat. The objects found here show 
that the site was occupied in the time of the Old Kingdom and on- 
ward, but as Ramses II and Ramses III both set up here statues 
of themselves, and erected important buildings, and as the location 
is the only one that fulfils the conditions of the city Raamses, 
Petrie feels confident that this was the site. This view receives 
some confirmation from the title of an officer who served here under 
Ramses III, and who is called: “Chief archer, keeper of the gran- 
aries, keeper of the palace; chief archer, keeper of the granaries of 
Arabia (or Syria).” 

Merneptah, who is generally supposed to have been the Pharaoh 
under whom the Exodus occurred, was not drowned in the Red Sea, 
as some have wrongly inferred from Exod. 14 : 23-28, but was duly 
buried like his predecessors. His mummy has been found and is 
now in the Gizeh Museum at Cairo. 

Merneptah in the fifth year of his reign set up a hymn of victory 
on a pillar in a temple erected by his father, Ramses II. This 
hymn, discovered by Petrie in 1896, is famous as the only writing 
outside the Bible that mentions Israel by name. A part of it is 
translated in Part II, p. 338, where its bearing on the Exodus is 
discussed; (see Fig. 15). 

For several seasons since 1919 Dr. Clarence S. Fisher has de- 
voted himself to the excavation of the palace of Merneptah at 
Memphis. Now (1924) he has brought to America many objects 
and even some rooms of the palace for installation in the Uni- 
versity Museum in Philadelphia. 

(6) Campaign of Sheshonk I.—The record on a wall of the 
temple of Karnak in Egypt by Sheshonk I, the Shishak of 1 Kings 
14: 25, of his campaign in Palestine, confirms the statement of 


1 See Petrie, Hyksos and the Israelite Cities, p. 28, f. 


EGYPT | 39 


Kings and puts the whole campaign in a new perspective. It is 
treated in detail in Part II, p. 417, £. 

(7) Papyri Discovered at Elephantine—In recent years papyri 
discovered at Elephantine, an island in the First Cataract, reveal 
the existence of a Jewish colony there, which had a Jewish temple 
on the island. ‘This colony was established there at some time 
during the twenty-sixth dynasty, and was thus one of the earliest 
of those Jewish settlements in foreign countries which formed the 
Dispersion. A number of the records of these papyri, which relate 
the fortunes of this temple, the relations of this colony to their 
Egyptian neighbors and their knowledge of the law, are translated 
in Part II, p. 447, ff. The origin of the colony is also discussed 
there. 

(8) The Palace of Hophra.—Hophra, of the twenty-sixth dynasty, 
was, as noted in § 6 (9), the king who lured Judah to her ruin. 
Petrie in 1907 discovered his palace at Memphis. The discovery 
makes Hophra seem a little more real.} 

(9) The Castle at Tahpanhes.—We learn from Jer. 43:7, 8 and 
44 :1 that, after the destruction of Jerusalem, Jeremiah with many 
other Jews fled to Tahpanhes in Egypt and established a Jewish 
colony there. Jeremiah, as a symbolical act, was directed to hide 
some stones in the cement of the tiled area of the court of Pharaoh’s 
house there (Jer. 43:8). Tahpanhes was the Daphne of the 
Greeks. It was on the site of the modern Tell Defenneh. This 
was in ancient times the easternmost city of the northern Delta. 
A hundred and fifty miles of desert stretched away to the east of 
it, until one came to the gardens of Gaza in Palestine. Petrie ex- 
cavated Tell Defenneh in 1883-1884, and discovered the large 
castle there, which is probably the building in which Jeremiah 
buried his stones. This was the last act of Jeremiah’s life of which 
we haveany record. He was then an old man and apparently died 
soon afterward, probably at Tahpanhes, certainly in Egypt. 

(10) The Jewish Temple at Leontopolis. —Josephus tells us twice, 
once in his Antiquities of the Jews, Book XIII, Chapter TIT, and again 
in his Wars of the Jews, Book VII, Chapter X, that, when Jonathan, 
the Maccabee, was made high priest of the Jews, about 153 B. c., 
Onias, the son of Onias III, the deposed high priest, went to 
Egypt and obtained a grant of land and permission to build a 
Jewish temple. This land was in the region of the city of Bubastis, 

1See Petrie, The Palace of Apries, London, 1909. 


40 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


the nome where the cat goddess was sacred, and was accordingly 
called by the Greeks Leontopolis. There were at this time about 
as many Jews in Egypt as in Palestine, and doubtless Ptolemy VII 
thought to keep them more loyal by granting them a temple. He 
gave to Onias the revenues of a considerable territory for the sup- 
port of the temple. Josephus tells us that Onias urged as a reason 
for the construction of this temple that it would be in fulfilment of 
the prophecy in Isa. 19: 19-22. Josephus goes on to say that 
this temple was built as an exact reproduction of the temple at 
Jerusalem and that it continued to exist as a place of worship until 
after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, when troubles caused 
by Jewish zealots led the Roman government to close the temple 
at Leontopolis and discontinue its worship; (see F ig. 12). 

The site of this temple was at Tell el-Yehudiyeh, the “Tell of 
the Jewess,” about 20 miles north of Cairo. This tell was excavated 
by Petrie in 1905-1906. He found there remains of the Jewish 
temple, which fully confirm the statements of Josephus. Not only 
the temple, but the form of the Jewish settlement, was made as 
far as possible a replica of the city of Jerusalem. One of the 
most interesting discoveries was a series of ovens for the roasting 
of Paschal lambs. Others of a similar character were found higher 
up in the mound, but those of the first series were most numerous. 
Petrie infers that the temple was dedicated by a great Passover 
Feast, to which Jews came in large numbers from throughout 
Egypt!; (see Fig. 13). 

(11) Papyri from Oxyrhynchus.—About 123 miles south of Cairo 
and nine miles to the west of the Nile lies the town of Behnesa, 
which the Greeks called Oxyrhynchus, from a sharp-nosed fish which 
was sacred there. Since 1897 Grenfell and Hunt, two English ex- 
plorers, have been season after season exploring the rubbish heaps 
of the old town. The inhabitants committed the contents of their 
waste-baskets to the sands, and on account of the dry climate 
these have never decayed. Here were found the “Sayings of Jesus,” 
some of the documents concerning the Roman census, and some of 
the letters translated in Part II, pp. 502, ff., 510, ff., as well as many 
remains of the works of classical authors. Similar documents have 
been found in other parts of Egypt, but no other site has yielded as 
many as Oxyrhynchus. 

(12) Discoveries in Nubia.—During the winter of 1908-1909 


1 See Petrie, Hyksos and the Israelite Cities, Dp, 191s. 


EGYPT | 41 


-Maclver explored at Karanog in Nubia for the University of 
Pennsylvania. He found in a cemetery many remains of the 
civilization of the Christian Nubians. They still called their 
queen Candace (see Acts 8:27), fed her on milk, and regarded 
obesity as an attribute of royalty. More will be known of the 
Nubians of this period when the inscriptions discovered at Karanog 
and at Shablul, deciphered by Mr. Griffith, have been more com- 
pletely studied. The explorations of the English at Meroe have 
afforded a connected view of the development of this Nubian civili- 
zation. ‘They found there the remains of an early period extending 
from about 650-400 B. c., which was followed by about a century 
when the royal residence was elsewhere, a middle period from 300 
to 1 B. c., during the latter part of which Hellenic influences were 
felt, and a late period, from 1 to 350 a. p., during which Roman 
forms of art penetrated the country.! 


1 See Annals of Archeology and Anthropology, VII, Liverpool, 1914, pp. 1-10. 


CHAPTER. iI 


BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 


Tue LAND. THE PRESERVATION OF ANTIQUITIES. THE DISCOVERY OF ANTIQUITIES: © 
By Benjamin of Tudela. By Rich. By Botta and Place. By Layard. By Loftus 
and Rawlinson. By Oppert and Rassam. By George Smith. By Sarzec. By Peters, 
Ward, and Haynes. By Koldeway. By Andrae. By de Morgan. By Harper and Banks. 
By Genouillac. By recent explorers. THE DECIPHERMENT OF THE INSCRIPTIONS: By 
Niebuhr. By Grotefend, De Sacy, and Rawlinson. Babyloniancolumn. Babylonian- 
Semitic. CHRONOLOGY. OUTLINE OF THE History: The prehistoric period. Sumerians.. 
The Pre-Babylonian period. ‘Stele of the Vultures.” The early Babylonian period, 
Kassites. Pashe dynasty. The early Assyrian period. ‘The second Assyrian period. 
The Neo-Babylonian period. ‘The Persian period. ‘The Greek and Parthian periods. 
DISCOVERIES WHICH ILLUMINE THE BIBLE. 


1. The Land.—The Mesopotamian Valley, as the great region 
watered by the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers is called, in many 
respects resembles Egypt, although in other respects it differs 
strikingly from Egypt. The country is like Egypt in that it is — 
formed by rivers; it differs from Egypt in that it has two rivers 
instead of one. In late geologic time the Persian Gulf extended 
far up toward the Mediterranean. All of what was Babylonia has 
been formed by detritus (silt) brought down by the Tigris and the 
Euphrates. The process of forming land is still going on. At the 
head of the Persian Gulf about seventy feet a year is still formed 
in this way, or a mile in about seventy-five years. 

Both the Tigris and the Euphrates rise in the mountainous re- 
gions of Armenia, on opposite sides of the same range of mountains. 
The melting of the snows on these mountains gives both rivers, 
like the Nile, a period of overflow. As the source of the Tigris is 
on the south side of the mountains, it begins to rise first. Its rise 
begins about the first of March, its overflow is at its height in 
May, and the water recedes in June or July. The Euphrates 
begins to rise about the middle of March, continues to rise until — 
June, and does not recede to its ordinary level until September. 
The soil thus formed is of rich materials, and the retreating flood 
leaves it each year well watered and softened for agriculture. Here, 
as in Egypt, one of the earliest civilizations of the world developed. 


42 


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It was quite independent of that in Egypt, and consequently dif- 
fered from the Egyptian in many respects. Unlike Egypt, Baby- 
lonia had a rainy season; nevertheless she was mainly dependent 
upon the overflow of the rivers for her irrigation and her fertility. 
As she possessed two rivers, her breadth was greater than that of 
Egypt, but she lacked the contiguity of protecting deserts, such as 
Egypt possessed. All through her history her fertile plains at- 
tracted the mountain dwellers of the East and the peoples of the 
West. Subject to frequent invasion by these, Babylonia had no 
long peaceful development such as Egypt enjoyed before the 
Hyksos invasion. From before the beginning of written history 
race mingled with race in this great valley, invasions were fre- 
quent, and the construction of permanent empires difficult. 

The breadth of the Mesopotamian Valley affected also the 
building materials and the character of the art. Stone was much 
more difficult to obtain than in Egypt. Clay only was abun- 
dant. All buildings were consequently of brick. These structures 
were far less enduring than those in Egypt; their upper parts 
have disintegrated and buried the lower portions. Babylonian 
ruins are accordingly all under ground. The abundant clay was 
also used by the Babylonians as writing material. When baked, 
it proved far more enduring than the Egyptian papyrus. Thus, 
notwithstanding the general similarities which the Mesopotamian 
Valley presents to Egypt, its differences profoundly affected 
Babylonian history and Babylonian art. 

2. The Preservation of Antiquities—Babylonian cities were 
usually built on terraces of brick. The walls of the cities and 
their buildings were constructed of the same material. Refuse 
from the houses in these towns was always thrown out into the 
streets, so that, as the centuries passed, the streets were gradu- 
ally elevated. The walls of the brick houses gradually became 
unstable in the lapse of time, and as the houses were repaired they 
were brought up to the level of the street. Consequently even in 
peaceful times the mounds on which the cities were built gradually 
grew higher. Most of these cities were at various times destroyed 
in warfare. Sometimes all the houses would be partially demolished 
and the site would be for a time practically uninhabited. When 
at length the place was repeopled, the top of the mound would be 
smoothed off and taken as the base of a new city. In this way 
through the many centuries of Babylonian history the sites of her 


44 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


cities have become great mounds. When these cities finally fell 
into ruin, the clay of the upper part of the walls gradually disin- 
tegrated in the weather and formed a coating of earth over the 
whole, which preserved the foundations of the walls both of cities 
and houses, as well as the inscribed clay, stone tablets, and the 
works of art buried underneath. 

Connected with each Babylonian and Assyrian temple was a 
kind of staged tower, shaped in a general way like the stepped 
pyramid of Zoser at Sakkarah in Egypt. The Babylonians called 
these towers Ziggurais. As the bricks of these towers decayed, 
they formed in connection with the city mound a kind of hillock 
or peak, which varied in accordance with the height of the tower. 
The ruin of the Ziggurat at Birs Nimréd, the ancient Borsippa, is 
one of the most imposing to be seen in ancient Babylonia; it was 
long thought to be the original of the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11 : 9). 
It thus came about that no ancient temple of Babylonia, like some 
of those in Egypt, has remained above ground. Explorers have 
had to dig to discover antiquities; (see Fig. 22). 

3. The Discovery of Antiquities: By Benjamin of Tudela— 
The first man from western Europe. who traveled through Baby- 
lonia and Assyria and noted their ruins was a Jew, Benjamin of 
Tudela, in the kingdom of Navarre. Leaving home about 1160 
A. D., he traveled through Palestine, crossed the desert by way of 
Tadmor, visited Mosul opposite ancient Nineveh, and went south- 
ward to the site of Babylon. He also saw the ruin of Birs Nimrid, 
and believed it to be the Tower of Babel. Between the sixteenth 
and eighteenth centuries many other travelers visited the Mesopo- 
tamian Valley and described what they saw. Some of these, 
toward the close of the eighteenth century, described curious in- 
scriptions which they had seen there on bricks. This information 
led the British East India Company in 1797 to instruct its resident 
at Bussorah, in southern Babylonia, to try to secure some of these 
inscriptions. This he did, and early in 1801 the first case of in- 
scribed bricks arrived at the East India House in London, where 
they are still preserved. 

By Rich.—farly in the nineteenth century Claude James Rich 
became resident of the East India Company at Bagdad. In his 
travels through the region he visited the mounds of Hillah (Baby- 
lon), Kouyunjik (Nineveh), and others, where he made some slight 
excavations, and found many inscriptions. The smaller ones he 


BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 45: 


added to his collection, but many of them were of too monumental 
a character to be removed. Through these efforts a wide-spread 
interest was aroused. 

By Botia and Place.—In 1842 the French government created a 
vice-consulate at Mosul, opposite the site of ancient Nineveh, and 
appointed to the position Paul Emil Botta, who had served as 
French consul at Alexandria in Egypt. Botta’s mission was made 
in part archeological. In December, 1842, Botta began digging 
in the mound of Kouyunjik, the site of ancient Nineveh. Here he 
worked for three months. As he found only a few inscribed bricks 
and the fragments of some bas-reliefs, he became discouraged, and 
changed the field of his operations to a mound called Khorsabad, 
situated about fourteen miles to the northeast of Kouyunjik. 
Here he discovered a palace filled with interesting inscribed bas- 
reliefs made of alabaster, as well as a city about a mile in cir- 
cumference. Under the corners of the palace and under the city 
gates were many inscribed cylinders of clay. This proved to be 
the palace and city built by Sargon, King of Assyria (722-705 B. c.), 
as his new capital. He named it Dur-Sharrukin, or Sargonsburgh. 
His name had so entirely disappeared from ancient literature that 
only one reference to him has survived, that in Isaiah 20: 1) but 
here was his palace arising from the dust together with abundant 
annals of his reign. (See Part II, p. 427, ff.) 

Botta and his successor, Victor Place, excavated intermittently 
at Khorsabad for ten years, uncovering the palace and making a 
plan of it, excavating the city walls and gates, studying the drain- 
age of the ancient town, and fully describing the whole. Although 
a part of the antiquities found were lost in the Tigris by the wreck 
of a raft on which they were being floated down the river, a large 
collection reached France, where they are preserved in the Louvre. 

By Layard.—The success of Botta fired the enthusiasm of Austen 
Henry Layard, a young Englishman of Huguenot descent, who 
began to excavate in 1845 at Nimriid, a mound further down the 
Tigris than Mosul, and the site of the Biblical Calah (Gen. 10 : 11). 
His money was at first furnished by a few friends, but as he soon 
discovered a royal palace there similar to the one Botta had un- 
earthed at Khorsabad, the trustees of the British Museum com- 
missioned him to excavate for them. He thus continued the work 
intermittently until 1849. During this time he spent most of 
his energy upon the mound of Kouyunjik, where he discovered 


46 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


another royal palace. This palace proved to be the work of Sen- 
nacherib, the son of Sargon (named in 2 Kings 18 : 13; Isa. 36), 
who built the one at Khorsabad, while the palace at Calah was, in 
its final form, the work of Esarhaddon, the son of Sennacherib. 
(See 2 Kings 19:37.) The palace at Nineveh had in turn been 
repaired by Esarhaddon’s son, Assurbanipal. 

By Loftus and Rawlinson.—As these excavations progressed, 
others were stimulated to make minor explorations. Thus in 1850 
William Kennett Loftus carried on small excavations at the mound 
of Warka, the site of the Biblical Erech (Gen. 10 : 10), in south- 
ern Babylonia, from which he recovered important antiquities. 
From 1851-1855 the oversight of English excavations was entrusted 
to Sir Henry C. Rawlinson, the British consul-general at Bagdad. 
Under his direction J. E. Taylor, British vice-consul at Bassorah, 
made an excavation at the mound of Mugheir, the site of Ur of 
the Chaldees, where he unearthed important inscriptions. At the 
same time Loftus was traveling about Babylonia collecting an- 
tiquities. | 

By Oppert and Rassam.—In 1852 a French expedition under the 
direction of Jules Oppert reached Babylonia. Oppert made im- 
portant excavations at Hillah, the site of the city of Babylon, and 
at Birs Nimriid, the ancient Borsippa. In 1852 Hormuzd Rassam, 
who had been one of Layard’s helpers, continued under Rawlinson’s 
direction the excavation at Nineveh. This work continued until 
1854; Rassam had the good fortune to find, in a part of the mound 
previously untouched, still another palace. This was the palace 
of Assurbanipal, the last of Assyria’s great kings, who ruled from 
668 to 626 B. c., and who collected here a great library. This 
library Rassam discovered, and as it contained every variety of 
Babylonian and Assyrian literature, including dictionaries and 
grammatical exercises, it was one of the most important archzo- 
logical discoveries ever made. During the last part of the time 
Rassam was succeeded by Loftus. Finally, in the autumn of 1854, 
Rawlinson himself undertook an excavation at Birs Nimrid, and 
unearthed some important inscriptions of Nebuchadrezzar II, 
King of Babylon, 604-562 B. c. (See 2 Kings 24, 25.) 

After this the interest in excavation waned for a time, while 
scholars were busy reading the tablets already found. 

By George Smith—In December, 1872, George Smith, an em- 
ployee of the British Museum, announced that among the tablets 


BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 47 


’ from Nineveh he had found an account of the flood which closely 
resembled that in the Bible. This aroused so much interest that 
the proprietors of the London Daily Telegraph contributed money 
to send George Smith to Assyria to explore further the mounds 
there. George Smith thus led two expeditions of exploration, one 
in 1873 and the other in 1874. He extended the trenches of his 
predecessors at Nineveh and discovered many more important 
inscriptions. In 1876 he was on his way to Mesopotamia for the 
third time, when he died of fever at Aleppo. The British Museum 
immediately secured the services of Rassam again, who during 
that year and 1877 extended the work at Kouyunjik (Nineveh) 
and also found a palace of Shalmaneser ITI, King of Assyria, 860— 
824 B. c., at a mound called Balawat, situated to the east of 
Kouyunjik. 

By Sarzec.—Meantime, the interest of France was again aroused, 
and in 1877 her consul at Bassorah, Ernest de Sarzec, began the 
excavation of Telloh, a mound in southern Babylonia, which turned 
out to be the site of Shirpurla or Lagash, one of the oldest and 
most important of the ancient cities of Babylonia. Work was 
carried on at intervals here by Sarzec until his death in 1901, and 
has since been continued by Gaston Cros. The results have not 
received the popular acclaim accorded to the discoveries of Botta 
and Layard, but scientifically they are far more important. Some 
of the oldest examples of Babylonian art have been discovered, as 
well as many thousands of tablets. One room alone contained 
an archive of business documents estimated. at thirty thousand. 
Much of our knowledge of the history of early Babylonia is derived 
from material found at Telloh. 

By Peters, Ward, and Haynes.—In 1884 America began to take 
an interest in Babylonian exploration. This was due largely to 
the initiative of Dr. John P. Peters, then Professor of Hebrew in 
the University of Pennsylvania, now Rector of St. Michael’s 
Church, New York. Through his efforts Miss Catherine L. Wolfe, 
of New York, contributed the money to defray the expenses of 
an expedition to Babylonia for a preliminary survey. This ex- 
pedition was led by Dr. William Hayes Ward, Editor of the New 
York Independent. It spent the winter of 1884-1885 in Mesopota- 
mia, made many observations of the various mounds, and col- 
lected some archeological material. Dr. Peters continued his 
efforts, and as a result a fund was raised in Philadelphia to defray 


48 _ARCHAKOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


the expenses of an excavation in the interest of the University of 
Pennsylvania. This expedition set out in 1888 under the direc- 
tion of Dr. Peters. The site chosen for the exploration was Nuffar, 
about sixty miles to the southeast of Babylon. The work was con- 
tinued for two seasons under the direct control of Dr. Peters. 
After an interruption of three years the work was resumed under 
the general direction of Dr. Peters, with Dr. John H. Haynes as 
Field Director. Dr. Haynes, in the most self-sacrificing and heroic 
manner, continued the work both summer and winter until Febru- 
ary, 1896, laying bare many of the features of the ancient city of 
Nippur, which had occupied the site, and discovering many in- 
scribed tablets. While this work was in progress Prof. Herman 
V. Hilprecht became nominal head of the expedition on account 
of the removal of Dr. Peters to New York. A fourth expedition 
under the guidance of Dr. Haynes began work at Nuffar (Nippur) 
in February, 1899, and worked until March, 1900. During this 
work Dr. Haynes discovered a large archive of tablets, the exact 
number of which is variously estimated. The find was similar to 
that made by Sarzec at Telloh; (see Figs. 16 and 17). 

Nuffar, the ancient Nippur, was one of the oldest centers of 
Babylonian civilization, and the work of the Americans there is; 
for our knowledge of the history of ancient Babylonia, next in 
importance to that done by the French at Telloh. A large num- 
ber of the tablets discovered at N ippur are now in the University 
Museum in Philadelphia. Meantime, the Turkish government 
had undertaken on its own account an excavation at Abu Haba, the 
site of the ancient Sippar in northern Babylonia. The direction 
of the work was committed to the oversight of the French Assyriol- 
ogist, Pére Scheil, and the work was carried on in the early part 
of the year 1894. Much interesting material was brought to light. 

By Koldewey.—Also during this decade a new Society, the 
Orient-Gesellschaft, had been formed in Berlin for the purpose of 
excavation. This Society began in 1899 the excavation of the 
great mound which covered the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon. 
The work was committed to the direction of Dr. Robert Koldewey, 
who has carried it steadily forward until the present time. Kolde- 
wey has laid bare at Babylon a number of the great works of King 
Nebuchadrezzar—the magnificent walls with which he surrounded 
Babylon, and the palace and temples with which he adorned it. 
As the work at Babylon has progressed, Koldewey has made a 


BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 49 


number of minor excavations in smaller mounds of Babylonia. 
During the season of 1912-1913 Dr. Julius Jordan undertook, under 
Dr. Koldewey’s general direction, an excavation at Warka, the 
Biblical Erech, where Loftus had dug sixty years before. A part 
of the great temple of Ishtar has been uncovered by Dr. Jordan, 
together with a portion of the city wall and many houses. Many 
tablets have also been found, some of them having been written as 
late as the Seleucid and Parthian periods, 312-50 B.c.; (see Fig. 18). 

By Andrae.—While the excavation at Babylon has been in 
progress, the Orient-Gesellschaft has also conducted another at 
Kalah-Sherghat, on the Tigris, in ancient Assyria. This is the site 
of the city of Ashur, from which the country of Assyria took its 
name. (Cf. Gen. 10:10, 11.) The work has been under the 
direction of Dr. Andrae and has been in progress from 1902 to the 
present time. Temples and palaces have been uncovered, and 
inscriptions from every period of Assyrian history have been 
found. ‘The latest reports of the work at Ashur tell of the discovery 
of objects which connect the founding of the city with immigrants 
from Lagash in southern Babylonia. 

By de Morgan.—In 1900 a French expedition began the exca- 
vation of Susa, in ancient Elam, the Shushan of the Bible. (See 
Neh. 1 : 1; Esther 1 : 2, etc.,and. Dan. 8:2.) This work was under 
the direction of J. de Morgan. While Susa is not in Babylonia, 
the excavations here added greatly to our knowledge of Babylonian 
history and life, for during the first two seasons of the excavation, 
two inscribed stone pillars were discovered, which the ancient 
Elamites had at some time taken as trophies of war from the 
Babylonians. One of these was an inscription of Manishtusu, 
King of Kish, who ruled about 2700 B. c., and the other the pillar 
which contained the laws of Hammurapi, the most important 
single document relating to Babylonian life that is known to us. 
(See Part II, Chapter XIII.) 

By Harper and Banks.—During the year 1903-1904 the Uni- 
versity of Chicago sent an expedition to Babylonia. The expenses 
were borne by a contribution from John D. Rockefeller. The 
late Prof. Robert Harper was Scientific Director of the expedition, 
and Dr. Edgar J. Banks, Field Director. The work was con- 
ducted at the mound of Bismya, which proved to be the site of the 
ancient city of Adab, one of the oldest Babylonian cities, which 
seems not to have been occupied since about 2600 B. c. Many 


50 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


interesting finds were made, including a statue of a king, Lugalda- 
udu, and many tablets. Friction with the Turkish Government 
brought the expedition to an untimely close, and owing to the 
same cause the tablets discovered are hoarded at Constantinople 
and have not been given to the world. 

By Genouillac.—During the early part of the year 1914 a French 
expedition, under the direction of H. de Genouillac, excavated at 
Ukhaimir, the site of ancient Kish. They have discovered the great 
Ziggurat of the temple of Zamama, the god of Kish, and are said 
to have made other important finds, but the details are not yet 
published. 

By Thompson and Hall.—In the spring of 1918 the British 
Government sent the Assyriologist, R. Campbell Thompson,! who 
had been during the Great War serving the government in Meso- 
potamia, to make some excavations at Abu Sharain, the site of 
ancient Eridu in southern Babylonia. Not a great deal of time was 
devoted to the work, but a number of trenches were sunk in dif- 
ferent parts of the mound and important information gained. 
Babylonian ‘inscriptions long ago led us to believe that Eridu was 
one of the oldest, if not the oldest city in Babylonia. Inscriptions 
also indicated that it was situated on the shore of the Persian 
Gulf. Mr. Thompson’s discoveries confirm the first of these be- 
liefs, but indicate that the race which first inhabited this site was 
neither Semitic nor Sumerian, but akin to the Elamites and the 
people of Anau, east of the Caspian Sea, where Pumpelly made 
his noteworthy excavation. This is proved by the discovery of 
pottery in the lowest levels identical in type with that found at 
Susa and Anau. 

Thompson’s exploration seems to prove, however, that Eridu 
did not lie on the shore of the Persian Gulf. At almost every 
level of the mound he found the shells of a fresh-water mussel 
which the people had used as an article of food. This indicates that 
the city was on a fresh-water lagoon formed by the overflow of 
the Euphrates. The mound appears to have been deserted about 
2000 BIC. 

Captain Thompson’s expedition worked at Abu Sharain but 
about two months. When the summer heat came on, the work 


1 Thompson’s report of his work is published in Archeologia, Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to 
Antiquity, published by the Society of Antiquaries, of London, Vol. XX, 1920, pp. 101-144, 
2 See Explorations in Turkestan, by Raphael Pumpelly, Washington, 1908. 


BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA Sl 


- was discontinued. It was taken up again in the spring of 1919 by 
the British Museum, this time the excavator being Mr. C. R. Hall. 
Mr. Hall devoted his work mainly to the mound of Mugheir, the 
site of Ur of the Chaldees, though he also extended the trenches 
of Thompson at Abu Sharain. At Ur his work confirmed that of 
Loftus and Taylor, exposing more of the great temple of the 
moon-god of Ur, and at Eridu his work similarly confirmed that of 
Thompson. The most noteworthy achievement of the expedition 
was the uncovering of a temple of the early Sumerian period at 
Tell el-Obeid, four or five miles southwest of Ur. Here Mr. Hall 
found remains of a temple rebuilt by the kings of Lagash about 
3000 B. c. and also some remarkable lions. The heads were cast 
in bitumen, filled with straw and clay, over which a covering of 
bronze had been laid—a remarkable piece of work for a date so 
early.! 

By Woolley.—The work at Urand at Tell el-Obeid has since been 
carried on for two seasons (1922-1923 and 1923-1924) by Mr. C. 
L. Woolley, who has conducted a jomt expedition for the British 
Museum and the University Museum of Philadelphia. Mr. 
Woolley has exposed more of the temple of the moon-god—pave- 
ments and walls built by Nebuchadrezzar, and walls and ziggurat 
constructed by kings of Ur have been further uncovered, and he 
has discovered a deposit of jewelry and a statue of one of the rulers 
of Lagash, dating from about 3000 B.c. (See Figs. 306, 307.) He 
has found evidence of the existence at Ur of a court with a colon- 
nade which was constructed by Kurigalzu, in the fourteenth century 
B.C. It was not previously known that the Babylonians used colon- 
nades in building. At El Obeid he has found additional exam- 
ples of Sumerian work of surprisingly high quality, including flowers 
carved in stone, and a frieze of human and animal figures, dating 
from about 4000 B. c. or earlier.” 

By Mackay.—During the past season (1923-1924) Captain 
Mackay has been taking up the work at Ukheimir begun by de 
Genouillac before the war. He has been working under the aus- 
pices of the Ashmoleum Museum of Oxford and the Field Museum 
of Chicago. So far as reported he has made no important dis- 
coveries, except an inscription believed by Mackay to be the oldest 
human writing known. 


1 See Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, London, 1919-20, pp. 22-44; Journal of Egyptian 
Archaeology, VIII, 241, ff., and IX, 177, ff. 
2See the Museum Journal, December, 1923, and March, 1924. 


52 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


4. The Decipherment of the Inscriptions.—The task of learning 
to read the inscriptions of Babylonia and Assyria was much more 
difficult than the decipherment of the Egyptian hieroglyphs, for 
no such simple key as the Rosetta Stone was at hand. The key 
that finally unlocked the mystery came not from Babylonia, but 
from Persepolis in Persia. When Cyrus the Great conquered 
Babylon in 538 B. c. the Persians had not developed a system of 
writing.’ They accordingly adapted to their language the char- 
acters of the Babylonian script. ‘The Babylonian script had begun, 
like the Egyptian hieroglyphs, as a system of picture-writing, in 
which each picture represented an idea. These had gone through 
a long development, in which the original picture-forms had been 
supplanted by conventional characters derived therefrom. In 
making these characters on clay, one end of a line was always 
wider than the other, hence the characters are called “wedge- 
shaped” or “cuneiform.” In the course of the ages the Babylonians 
had come to use the characters to express both syllables and whole 
words, and a scribe might mingle these uses of a sign at will in 
writing a composition. Many of the signs might also express 
any one of several syllables. In adapting this complicated system, 
the Persians had the wisdom to simplify it. They selected or 
constructed a character for each sound, making a real alphabet. 
Three of the Persian kings, Darius (521-485), Xerxes (486-465), 
and Artaxerxes II (405-359), wrote their inscriptions in three 
languages,— Babylonian, Elamite, and Persian,—employing wedge- 
shaped scripts for all of them. 

By Niebuhr.—In the ruins of the great palace of the Persian 
kings at Persepolis many of these inscriptions in three languages 
were preserved. These ruins attracted the notice of many travelers 
from the time that Odoric, a monk, saw them in 1320 a. D., and 
a number of travelers had made copies of some of them and brought 
them back to Europe. The inscriptions were a great puzzle. 
After Alexander the Great (331-323 B. c.) Persia had been sub- 
ject to foreign powers until 220 a. p., when the Sassanian dynasty 
(220-641 a. p.) made Persia again an independent kingdom. In 
the revival of Persian letters that occurred in Sassanian times, a 
form of the Phcenician alphabet was used, because the old charac- 
ters of these inscriptions had been forgotten. In 1765 Carsten 
Niebuhr, a Dane, visited Persepolis and made accurate copies of a 
large number of these inscriptions. The first correct reading of any 


BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 53 


of [these inscriptions was done from Niebuhr’s copies; (See Fig. 
20). 

By Grotefend, de Sacy, and Rawlinson—A number of scholars 
had studied Niebuhr’s copies, but the first to read any of them 
correctly was Georg Friedrich Grotefend, a German scholar. He 
began with the assumption that the three groups of lines in the 
inscriptions contained respectively three languages, and that the 
first of these was the Persian of Cyrus and his successors. In 
the years 1787-1791 Sylvestre de Sacy, a French Oriental scholar, 
had studied and in part expounded some Sassanian alphabetic 
inscriptions from Persia, which had also long attracted the notice 
of scholars. These Sassanian inscriptions were many of them cast 
in the same mould. They ran thus: 


“X the great king, king of kings, the king of Iran and Aniran, son of Y, 
the great king,” etc. 


Grotefend had these inscriptions before him, and compared this 
formula with the inscriptions from Persepolis. He noted that as 
often as the formula contained the word “‘king’’ the inscriptions 
from Persepolis contained the same group of signs, and that as often 
as it had “of kings,” they reproduced the group with a different 
ending. He therefore rightly concluded that these signs were the 
old Persian spelling of the Persian word for “king” with its genitive 
plural. Taking from the Sassanian inscriptions the word for king, 
he proceeded to parcel out its sounds among the characters with 
which the word was spelled in the Persepolis inscriptions. He also 
found a king, who was the son of aman not a king. This, he 
rightly held, could be none other than Darius, the son of Hystaspes. 
Apportioning the proper groups of signs among the sounds of these 
names, he obtained still further alphabetical values. Thus a 
beginning was made. Grotefend was, however, unable to carry 
the work far, and in the years that followed Eugéne Burnouf, 
Christian Lassen, Isidore Lowenstern, Henry C. Rawlinson, and 
Edward Hincks all made contributions to the subject. The honor 
of having first correctly read and interpreted a long inscription be- 
longs to Rawlinson. Rawlinson was a young army officer, who as 
a boy had been in India, where he learned Persian and several of 
the dialects of India. In 1833 he was sent to Persia with other 
British officers to assist in the reorganization of the Persian army. 
Here his attention was attracted by the great Persian inscriptions 


54 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


in the mountains near Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, and in the 
intervals of military duties he copied and studied several of them. 
He was, in the early stages of his work, quite unaware of the work 
done by Grotefend and others, but hit independently upon the 
method followed by Grotefend. Owing to the fact that the in- 
scriptions on which Rawlinson worked were longer than those ac- 
cessible to Grotefend, and also contained more proper names, 
Rawlinson attained greater success than any of his predecessors. 
He did not publish his results, however, until he had become thor- 
oughly familiar with all that others had done. It was not until 
1846 that he published a full interpretation of the Persian column 
of the great Behistun! inscription of Darius I. 

Babylonian Column.—This successful achievement related, how- 
ever, only to the Persian column. The mysteries of the Babylonian 
column had not yet been solved. This task, as will be evident 
from the complicated nature of the writing mentioned above, was 
a much more difficult one. The decipherment of the Persian had, 
however, taught the sound of many cuneiform signs. These sounds 
were carried over to the Babylonian column as a nucleus of informa- 
tion. Excavations were all the time also bringing new material to 
light, and a comparison of inscriptions, in many of which the 
same words were written in different ways, sometimes ideographi- 
cally and sometimes syllabically, helped on the general stock of 
knowledge. Rawlinson, Hincks, Jules Oppert, and Fox Talbot were 
the men who at this stage of the work were still wrestling with the 
problem. Again Rawlinson was the man to achieve the first dis- 
tinguished success. In 1851 he published one hundred and twelve 
lines of the Babylonian portion of the Behistun inscription with 
transliteration and translation, and accompanied the whole with — 
copious notes in which the principles of the grammar were set forth. 
A list of the signs and their values was also added. From that 
day to this the study has steadily gone forward. 

Babylonian-Semitic.—The work of Rawlinson and his co-laborers 
proved that the language of the ancient Babylonians was a Sem- 
itic language, closely akin to Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, and 
Ethiopic. Within the next few years after he had found the key 
to the cuneiform writing, Rawlinson announced that the inscrip- 
tions from Babylonia contained material in another and very differ- 
ent language. The researches of later years have fully confirmed 


1 So called from the name of the mountain on which it is written. 


BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 0 


this, and scholars call this language Sumerian. The people who 
spoke it were the inventors of many elements in the civilization 
of early Babylonia, and for many centuries at the dawn of history 
divided the country with the Semites. 

5. Chronology.—The materials for constructing the chronology 
of Babylonian and Assyrian history are as follows: 

(1) Claudius Ptolemy, an Egyptian astronomer who flourished 
in the second century A. D., made a list of the kings of Egypt, 
Persia, and Babylonia back to the accession of the Babylonian 
king, Nabonassar, in 747 B. c. This list was compiled as an as- 
tronomical aid, and is very accurate. 

(2) The Assyrian kings kept lists of years and of principal 
events, to which scholars have given the name ‘“‘Eponym Lists,” 
because each year was named after the king or some officer. Tab- 
lets containing these lists have been recovered on which we can 
still read the chronology from 893 to 6668.c. This list accordingly 
overlaps the list or “canon” of Ptolemy. Some of these Assyrian 
kings were also kings of Babylon, and where the lists overlap they 
agree. One of these lists mentions an eclipse which occurred at 
Nineveh in the month Sivan (May-June), 763 B. c. This eclipse 
has been calculated and verified by modern astronomers, so that 
the chronology covered by these lists rests upon a secure scientific 
basis. | 

(3) For dates in Assyrian history anterior to 893 B. c. we have 
to depend upon incidental notices in the inscriptions. Thus Sen- 
nacherib, whose date is fixed by the Eponym Lists as 705-681 B. c., 
relates that during his reign he recovered from Babylon the images 
of two gods that had been taken as booty by Marduknadinakhi, 
King of Babylon, from Tiglath-pileser, King of Assyria, 418 years 
before Sennacherib brought them back. It follows from this that 
Tiglath-pileser I of Assyria and Marduknadinakhi of Babylon 
were ruling from about 1120 to 1100 B. c. 

We also have a long inscription from the Tiglath-pileser men- 
tioned here, who relates that in his reign he restored a temple, 
which had been built by Shamshi-Adad, ruler of Assyria, son of 
Ishmi-Dagan, ruler of Assyria, 641 years before the time of Ashur- 
dan, King of Assyria. Ashur-dan had, he tells us, pulled the temple 
down and it had lain in ruins 60 years until he (Tiglath-pileser) 
rebuilt it. By adding these numbers we reach 1819 or 1820 B. c. 
as the accession of Shamshi-Adad. 


56 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Again Sennacherib found at Babylon a seal which bore the 
following inscription: 


“ Tukulti-Ninib, king of the world, son of Shalmaneser, King of Assyria, 
conqueror of the land of Chaldea. Whoever changes the writing of my 
name, may Ashur and Adad destroy his name. This seal was presented by 
the land of Assyria to the land of Akkad” (Babylonia). 


To this Sennacherib added the following inscription: 


“I, Sennacherib, after 600 years conquered Babylon, and from its treasures 
brought it out and took it.” 


We learn from this that Tukulti-Ninib was ruling in Assyria 
from about 1300 to 1290 z. c. 

Andrae has recently (1914) published an inscription of Tukulti- 
Ninib in which he states that he repaired a temple which had 
been built by his ancestor, Ilu-shumma, King of Assyria, 720 
years before. Ilu-shumma was, accordingly, ruling in Assyria 
about 2020 to 2010 z. c. 

(4) Among the tablets in the British Museum are two so-called 
“dynastic tablets” which contain lists of the kings of Babylon 
from the time that Babylon became the leading city of the country 
to its capture by the Persians. The kings are divided into eight 
dynasties, the length of the reign of each king was originally given, 
and at the end of each dynasty a statement was given of the 
number of kings in that dynasty and the total length of their reigns. 
These tablets are unfortunately much broken, so that they afford 
us little help after the year 1000 B. c. We learn from them, how- 
ever, that Marduknadinakhi, the king mentioned by Sennacherib 
as ruling about 1100 B. c., belonged to the fourth Babylonian dy- 
nasty, and, if we add together the years given for the previous 
dynasties, we are taken back nearly to the year 2400 B. c. for the 
accession of the first dynasty of Babylon. Evidence has, however, 
come to light in recent years which proves that the first and second 
of these dynasties overlapped, one ruling in the north while the 
other ruled in the south. A reliable chronology cannot, therefore, 
be obtained by adding these numbers together. In order to cor- 
rect them recourse must be had to other evidence. 

(S) Franz Xaver Kugler, who is both an astronomer and an 
Assyriologist, has recently shown that an astronomical tablet 
which was published as long ago as 1870, and which notes for a 


BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 57 


series of years when Venus was the evening and when the morning 
star, contains a date formula which fixes its compilation in the reign 
of Ammi-zadugga, the tenth of the eleven kings of the first dynasty 
of Babylon. From mathematical calculations of the position of 
the planet Venus, Kugler is accordingly able to fix the accession 
year of Ammi-zadugga as either 2040, 1976, or 1857 B. c. As the 
first of these dates is too early, and the third is, in the judgment 
of most scholars, too late, it follows that his accession year was in 
1976. From the lengths of the reigns of the various kings of this 
dynasty as given in the dynastic tablets, it follows that the first 
dynasty of Babylon began its rule in 2206 B. c. 

(6) Under Adad-nirari III, King of Assyria (810-782 B. c.), 
a so-called synchronistic history of Assyria and Babylonia was 
compiled. It covered about 600 years, beginning with a treaty 
of peace between Karaindash, King of ‘Babylon, and Ashur-rim- 
nishishu, King of Assyria. It aids in filling gaps left by breaks in 
other lists. 

(7) A chronological tablet in the Babylonian collection of Yale 
University contains a list of the kings of Larsa. This city was 
conquered by Hammurapi, of the first dynasty of Babylon, in the 
31st year of his reign. The tablet, therefore, counts Hammurapi 
one of the kings of Larsa, ascribing to him twelve years of rule. 
The tablet was apparently compiled in the twelfth year of Samsu- 
_iluna, Hammurapi’s successor, to whom twelve years are also 
ascribed. It gives the total length of the dynasty of Larsa as 289 
years. That dynasty, accordingly, began its rule in 2358 B. c. 

(8) Inachronological list of the kings of Ur and Nisin on a tab- 
let in the University Museum, Philadelphia, it is stated that the 
kings of Ur ruled 117 years and the kings of Nisin 225 years and 6 
months. A tablet has now been discovered which shows that the 
dynasty of Nisin was not overthrown until 2117 or 2116 8B. c. Its 
225 years, therefore, were all parallel to the time of the dynasty of 
Larsa. As the dynasty of Nisin rose upon the ruins of the king- 
dom of Ur, the dates of the kingdom of Ur are, therefore, fixed as 
2458-2341 B. Cc. 

(9) A chronological tablet published by Scheil in the Comptes 
rendus of the French Academy for 1911 gives a list of five early 
dynasties of Babylonia: a dynasty of Opis, one of Kish, one of 
Agade, and two of Erech. 


1 First published by Hilprecht, Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania, Vol. 
XX, No. 47; cf. p. 46. 


58 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


(10) A group of chronological tablets in the University Museum 
in Philadelphia,' which assign several dynasties to each of several 
well-known Babylonian cities, ascribe to their kings incredibly 
long reigns. One of these is translated in Part II, Chapter IV. 


(11) Fragments of a work of Berossos, a Babylonian priest who — 


lived after the time of Alexander the Great, contain a list 
of Babylonian kings. He based his work on such tablets as those 
in the University Museum. His statements abound accordingly 
in incredible numbers. 

From these tablets it appears that the dynasty of Ur was pre- 
ceded by a king of Erech for 25 years; he by the dynasty of Gutium, 
which ruled for 125 years; the dynasty of Gutium was preceded by 
a dynasty of Erech for 26 years; that, by a dynasty of Agade for 
197 years; that, by one king of Erech, Lugalzaggisi, who ruled 
25 years; he was apparently preceded by a dynasty of Kish for 
106 years; that, by a dynasty of Opis for 99 years. These figures 
take us back to 3061 B. c., though the arrangement for the time 
before Lugalzaggisi is in part conjectural. Four dynasties of what 
are known to have been historical kings existed before this time, 
which fill up the time until about 3250 B. c. To three other dy- 
nasties the tablets assign 885 years, which, added to the preceding, 
take us back to 4135 B. c. At this time Mesanni-padda ruled in 
Ur, where Mr. Woolley found an inscription of his. Earlier than 
this there lived, as the tablets tell us, the legendary and mythical 
kings whose names are discussed in Part II, Chapter V. The be- 
ginnings of Babylonian civilization are, therefore, as ancient as the 
Egyptian. 

(12) Nabuna’id, King of Babylon, 555-538 B. c., states that he 
found, in repairing the temple at Sippar (Agade), the temple-plat- 
form of Naram-Sin, son of Sargon, which no one had seen for 
3,200 years. As he made this statement about 550 B. C., it was 
long supposed that this fixed the date of Naram-Sin as 3750 B. c., 
and that of his father, Sargon, at about 3800 B. c. These dates 
will be found in many of the older books, but they are incredible. 
They would, if true, leave long gaps in the history that we have 
no information to fill. Since it has been clearly proved that the 
dynasties overlapped, it seems that Nabuna’id reached his date 

1See Poebel, Historical and Grammatical Texts, Philadelphia, 1914, Nos. 2-5, and Historical 
Texts, Philadelphia, 1914, pp. 73-140; also Legrain, Museum Journal, 1921, p. 75. A duplicate 


text in the Ashmolean Museum was published in 1923 by Langdon in Oxford Editions of Cunei- 
form Texts, Vol. II. 


ee ee ae 


BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 59 


by adding together the totals of dynasties, some of which were 
contemporary. It now seems probable that he placed Naram-Sin 
about 1,100 years too early. 

The sources here enumerated afford us a tolerably accurate 
chronology back to about 2450 B. c. All dates earlier than this 
have to be estimated by combining statements of early dynastic 
tablets with archeological and paleographic considerations. 

6. Outline of the History.—The history of Babylonia and As- 
syria falls into eight different periods. Our information is not yet 
sufficiently complete to enable us to write the history of any one 
of them, but we can discern in outline a most fascinating course of 
events. 

(1) The Prehistoric Period, or the period before the rise of writ- 
ten history, during which we can ascertain from various inferences 
the general course of events. This period must have begun about 
5000 or 6000 B. c. and lasted down to about 4200 8. c. Recent dis- 
coveries at Abu Sharain indicate that civilization was first brought 
to southern Babylonia by a race from central Asia. They were 
followed by Semites from Arabia,! who came up from the south, 
settling in the city of Eridu on the shore of the Persian Gulf, then 
in the cities of Ur, Erech, Lagash, Nippur, etc. They mingled with 
their predecessors. These combined peoples carried with them the 
culture of the palm-tree, and learned to raise grain in the alluvial 
soil of the rivers, but they had no system of writing. The early 
cities of Babylonia were the fortified residences of different tribes, 
which were frequently at war with one another. One city would 
subjugate its neighbors for a time and establish a small empire. As 
long as it continued to rule, a certain degree of homage was paid to 
its god by all the cities over which it ruled. In"prehistoric times 
there were kingdoms of this sort ruled at one time by Eridu, at an- 
other by Erech, and at another by Nippur, for Ea, the god of Eridu, 
Anu, the god of Erech, and Enlil or Bel, god of Nippur, were ever 
after worshiped as the supreme gods of Babylonia. 

Sumerians.—At some time before the dawn of history a people 
whom we call Sumerians moved into Babylonia from the East. 
These people spoke a language which possesses some features 


1Tt is the prevailing view of scholars that Arabia was the cradle-land of the Semites. The 
reasons for this view as well as a résumé of other views will be found in G. A. Barton’s Skeich of 
Semitic Origins, Social and Religious, New York, 1902, Chapter I, and in his article “Semites” in 
Hastings’ Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics. 


60 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


in common with Finnish and Turkish. They were neither Aryans 
nor Semites. The Semites wore thick hair and long beards; the 
Sumerians shaved both their heads and faces. These Sumerians 
overran southern Babylonia as far north as Nippur and in this 
region became the ruling race. They grafted the worship of their 
own gods upon the worship of the deities of the cities which they 
conquered, but the Semitic elements of these local deities persisted 
even in Sumerian thought. It thus came about that the bald and 
beardless Sumerians picture their gods with hair and beards. 
After settling in Babylonia, the Sumerians developed a system of 
writing. It was at first hieroglyphic, like the Egyptian system. 
Afterward the Semites, who still retained the supremacy in the 
cities of Kish and Agade in the north, and who had probably been 
reinforced there by fresh migrations from Arabia, adapted this sys- 
tem of writing to their own language. As clay was the usual writ- 
ing material and it was difficult to make good pictures on it, the 
pictographic form of the writing was soon lost. The pictures de- 
generated into those conventional symbols which are today known 
as the ‘‘cuneiform” characters. 

(2) The Pre-Babylonian Period of the history includes the period 
from about 4200 B. c. down to the rise of the city of Babylon, 
about 2100 B. c. This period, like the preceding, was a time of 
successive city kingdoms. One city would establish an empire 
for a while, then another, having become more powerful, would 
take the leadership. When first our written records enable us to 
trace the course of events, Lagash in the south and Kish in the 
north were the rival cities. Lagash was ruled by a king, Enkhegal. 
A little later Meselim, King of Kish, conquered all of southern 
Babylonia, including Lagash. After Meselim had passed away, 
Ur-Nina founded a new dynasty at Lagash and gained his inde- 
pendence. Ur-Nina’s grandson, Eannatum, raised the power of 
Lagash to its greatest height, conquering all the cities of Baby- 
lonia, even Kish. The Elamites were always invading the fertile 
plains of Babylonia, so Eannatum ascended the eastern mountains 
and subjugated Elam. 

“Stele of the Vultures.””—He celebrated his victories by the erec- 
tion of one of the most remarkable monuments which the ancient 
world produced, the so-called “‘stele of the vultures.” From the 
pictures on the monument we learn that the soldiers of Lagash, 


BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 61 


about 2950 B. c., waged their battles in a solid phalanx protected 
by shields. The Greeks were formerly supposed to have invented 
this form of attack, but were anticipated by 2,500 years; (see Fig. 19). 

Although this dynasty furnished several other rulers, the leader- 
ship of all Babylonia was lost after the death of Eannatum. It 
passed first to Opis and then again to Kish. Lagash continued to 
flourish, however, during 200 years, while these cities were the over- 
lords of its rulers. Its wars had made it rich, and all the arts 
flourished there. Our best specimens of terra-cotta and stone 
work come from this period of this city. Under Entemena, the 
successor of Eannatum, a silver vase of exquisite workmanship 
and ornamentation was made; (see Fig. 21). After a century or 
more of wealth and luxury, during which priests and officials be- 
came corrupt, a new king, Urkagina, seized the throne and en- 
deavored to reform the administration. Naturally, his reforms 
were unpopular with the priesthood and the army, and, though 
popular with the people, he unintentionally weakened the defensive 
power of his country. 

At this juncture a new ruler named Lugalzaggisi arose in the 
city of Umma, who ultimately overthrew Lagash and became 
king of all Babylonia. He made Erech his capital. This was about 
2800 B. c. Lugalzaggisi claims to have overrun the country from 
the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean. If so, and there is no good 
reason to doubt his claim, Babylonia and the Palestinian coast- 
lands were under him brought together for the first time. 

After Lugalzaggisi the city of Agade came to the fore. Its 
great King Sargon about 2775 B. c. founded a dynasty which 
ruled for nearly two hundred years. The kings of this line were 
Semitic and resided sometimes at Agade and sometimes at Kish. 
Sargon conquered Syria and a later chronicle says that he crossed 
the western sea. As a seal of this dynasty was found in 
Cyprus, it is possibly true. Naram-Sin, one of the most famous 
kings of this line, conquered the country of Magan, which some 
believe to be the peninsula of Sinai, but which others hold: was 
situated in eastern Arabia. 

About the time of this dynasty, or a little before, King Lugal- 
daudu flourished at Adab, the modern Bismya, where Dr. Banks 
found his statue. In this same general period a king named Anu- 
banini ruled in a city to the northward, called Lulubi. 

Perhaps it was under the later kings of this dynasty of Agade, or 


62 ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


under a dynasty of Erech which held sway for a brief period after 
them, that Gudea flourished at Lagash. This ruler does not claim 
to be a king, but his city enjoyed great prosperity under him, and 
he rebuilt it in fine style. He seems to have been on peaceful terms 
with much of the world, and brought for his structures stone from 
Magan, cedar wood from Amanus on the Mediterranean coast, and 
copper from Lebanon. After this time the land was overrun b 
hordes from Gutium, a region to the northeast beyond the Tigris. 
They established a dynasty which lasted for 125 (or 159) years. 

In 2458 B. c. a dynasty arose in the city of Ur, situated far to the 
south. These kings were Sumerians and under them a great Sumer- 
lan revival occurred. By this time northern Babylonia was called 
Akkad, from the city of Agade, and southern Babylonia was called 
Sumir, from a corruption of the name of one of the quarters of 
Lagash. These kings combined with the title “king of Ur” the 
title ‘‘king of Sumir and Akkad.” Sumir is the Biblical ‘Shinar’ 
(Gen. 10 : 10; 11 : 2, etc.). 

Dungi, the second king of this dynasty of Ur, reigned 58 years 
and established a wide empire, which included Elam and the city 
of Susa. He established a system of government posts to aid the 
royal officers of army and state in the performance of their duties. 

Upon the fall of the dynasty of Ur, the dominion of Babylonia 
was divided between two cities, Nisin and Larsa, each of which 
furnished a dynasty which flourished for more than two and a quar- 
ter centuries. Naturally, these kings were continually struggling 
with each other for the supremacy, and sometimes one city was 
the more powerful, sometimes the other. The Elamites, who 
during the whole period had occasionally swooped down into the 
Mesopotamian Valley, overran Larsa and furnished the last two 
kings of its dynasty,—Arad-Sin and Rim-Sin. These kings have 
each been thought by different scholars to be the Arioch of Gen. 
14:1. (See Part II, Chapter IX.) 

About 2210 B. c. a dynasty of rulers was founded in the city 
of Babylon that was destined to bring a new era into the history 
of the country. After a struggle of more than a century Hammu- 
rapi, the sixth king of this line, broke the power of Larsa and made 
Babylon the leading city of the country. Nisin had previously 
fallen. With the rise of Babylon another period of the life of the 
country was ended. 

The above sketch calls attention to a few only of the more prom- 


BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 63 


inent features and cities of Babylonia. There were many others 
which participated in her life during the millennium of the pre- 
Babylonian period. The recovery of more inscriptions will no 
doubt make this statement more true even than we now dream. 
Each of these contributed its mite to the progress of civilization in 
this melting-pot of races in this far-off time. 

(3) The Early Babylonian Period began with the reign of Ham- 
murapi and continued till about 1050 B. c. It includes the rule 
of the first four dynasties of Babylon. The period began glo- 
riously under Hammurapi, who conquered all of Babylonia, and 
extended his sway also to the Mediterranean. He was as great as 
an administrator as he was as a conqueror; he codified the laws of 
Babylonia and inscribed them on a stone pillar, which was set up 
in the temple of Marduk in Babylon. These laws have been re- 
covered, and are one of the most valuable archeological discoveries 
of modern times. (See Part II, Chapter XIII.) 

Soon after the death of Hammurapi, a revolt occurred under one 
Tlumailu, who established in the region near the Persian Gulf a 
dynasty known as the “dynasty of the sea lands,” which was 
afterward called the second dynasty of Babylon. Down to 1924 
B. C. the two dynasties divided the country between them. In 
that year Babylonia was invaded by the Hittites, who came from 
the northwest, and the first dynasty of Babylon was overthrown. 
The Hittites appear to have ruled the country for a short time, 
when they were driven out by the “dynasty of the sea lands,”’ which, 
so far as we know, controlled the country for the next hundred and 
fifty years. 

Kassites—About 1750 B. c., or shortly before, Babylonia was 
once more invaded by a race of barbarians from the east of the 
Tigris, called Kassites or Cosseans. They captured Babylon and 
founded the third dynasty of Babylon, which ruled for 576 years. 
The kings of this dynasty gradually absorbed Babylonian culture. 
Soon after 1700 B. c. they expelled the kings of the sea lands from 
the south and ruled the whole country. 

Assyria, which under the first dynasty had been a Babylonian 
colony, gained her independence before 1400 B. c., so that after 
that the independent histories of the two lands run on parallel 
lines. During the long period of Kassite rule, Babylon experienced 
many vicissitudes. Assyria was at times friendly and at times 
hostile. In the reign of Kurigalzu, Elam was successfully invaded 


64 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


and spoil formerly taken by the kings of Elam was brought back to 
Babylonia. Kadashman-turgu and Burnaburiash, kings of this 
dynasty, carried on friendly correspondence with Amenophis III 
and Amenophis IV, kings of Egypt, 1400-1350 B. c. 

Pashe Dynasty—About 1175 3B. c. the Kassite dynasty was 
superseded by the Pashe dynasty, which ruled the country for 
more than a hundred and thirty years. The greatest king of this 
time was Nebuchadrezzar I, who reigned about 1150 B. c. He 
emulated with considerable success the career of his great prede- 
cessor, Hammurapi. After the fall of the fourth dynasty, the 
country was divided and fell a prey to the Elamites, who overran 
it about 1050. For the following 450 years Babylonia, though 
often independent, was of little political importance. 

(4) The Early Assyrian Period.—Assyria’s empire grew out of 
the domination of the city of Ashur, as that of Rome grew out of 
the domination of the city of Rome. Ashur and Nineveh had been 
founded by colonists from Lagash about 3000 or 2800 B. c. This 
is shown by archeological remains found at Ashur, and by the name 
of Nineveh. We can first trace the names of Assyria’s rulers 
shortly before the year 2200 B. c. They do not call themselves 
kings, and were, perhaps, then subject to Babylon. 

About 1430 B. c. we learn that Assyria had become an inde- 
pendent kingdom. Her king at that time, Ashur-rim-nishishu, was 
a contemporary of Karaindash, King of Babylon. Ashur-uballit 
about 1370-1343 was a contemporary of Burnaburiash, King of 
Babylon, and shared in the correspondence with Egyptian kings 
contained in the El-Amarna letters. Shalmaneser I about 1300 
B. Cc. conquered the region to the west of Assyria extending across 
the Euphrates in the direction of the Mediterranean. Ashur- 
nasirpal, a later king (884-860 B.c.), says that Shalmaneser ‘“‘made”’ 
the city of Calah! as a new capital for his country. His son, 
Tukulti-Ninib I, turned his arms to the southward and conquered 
Babylon, which he held for seven years. After him Assyria’s 
power declined for a time, but was revived by Tiglath-pileser I, 
who carried Assyria’s conquests again across the Euphrates to the 
Mediterranean Sea and northward to the region of Lake Van. 
After the reign of Tiglath-pileser I, Assyria’s power rapidly declined 
again, and the first period of Assyria’s history was closed. Our 
sources almost fail us for a hundred years or more. 

1In Gen. 10: 11 it is by implication said that the city was founded by Nimrod. 


= ee ee a 


a a 


BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 65 


(5S) The Second Assyrian Period.—Assyria slowly emerged from 
the obscurity into which she had fallen after the death of Tig- 
lath-pileser I. The progress went forward through the reigns of 
eleven different kings. Finally, in the reign of Ashur-nasirpal 
II, 884-860 8.c., a period of foreign conquest was once more 
inaugurated. This monarch again carried the conquests of his 
country northward and also to the Mediterranean. (See Part II, 
p. 418.) Under him Assyria became the best fighting machine in 
the ancient world—a machine that was run with ruthless cruelty 
over all conquered peoples. This king set his successors the ex- 
“ample of flaying and impaling numbers of conquered peoples, and 
of boasting of such deeds in his chronicles. Probably such deeds 
were not now committed for the first time, but so far as we know 
they had not been so gloated over. 

Ashur-nasirpal’s successor, Shalmaneser ITI, 868-824 3. c., made, 
besides campaigns into Armenia and elsewhere, six campaigns 
against the lands of Syria and Palestine. On his first campaign 
in 854 he was met at Qarqar by a confederation of kings, among 
whom were Ahab of Israel and Ben-Hadad of Damascus. (See 
Part I, p. 418, ff.) On his fourth campaign in 842 B.c. Jehu, who 
had in that year usurped the throne of Israel, hastened to make his 
peace with Shalmaneser by giving him a heavy tribute. Thus 
Assyria gained a right to claim Israel as a vassal state. (See Part 
II, p. 420, f.) 

The next two kings, Shamshi-Adad IV and Adad-nirari IV, 
controlled Assyria until 783 B. c., and maintained her power. The 
last-mentioned king made three expeditions into the West, and 
claims to have received tribute not only from Israel but from 
Philistia and Edom, but no details of his campaigns have survived. 

After 783 the power of Assyria declined again, and the decline 
lasted until 745, when the reigning dynasty was overthrown, and an 
able general, whose name was apparently Pul, gained the throne 
(cf. 2 Kings 15 : 19), and took the great name of Tiglath-pileser. 
He reigned as the fourth king of that name. Tiglath-pileser IV 
was great both as a warrior and as a statesman. He broke for the 
time being the power of the kingdom of Urartu in Armenia, con- 
quered parts of Media on the east, and also annexed Babylon to 
Assyria. Babylon during this later Assyrian period had usually 
been permitted to retain a king of her own, though the kingdom was 
of little political importance as compared with Assyria. Tiglath- 


66 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


pileser made his power dominant in Babylonia at the beginning of 
his reign, and during the last two years of his life actually reigned 
there as king. The Babylonian scribes did not recognize his 
high-sounding name of Tiglath-pileser, but still called him Pul. 

In the first year of his reign Tiglath-pileser IV inaugurated a 
new policy with reference to conquered peoples. This was the 
policy of transporting to a distant part of his empire the wealthy 
and influential members of a conquered nation, and of putting 
similar exiles from other lands in their place. Individuals so trans- 
ported would be unable longer to foment rebellion against him. It 
was a brutal policy, but it was a measure designed to build up a 
permanent empire. 

Tiglath-pileser made four expeditions to the west, though the 
first two touched northern Phoenicia only. In 739, when he made 
his appearance in Palestine, Menahem, King of Israel, hastened to 
pay him tribute (2 Kings 15:19). Four years later, however, 
after Pekah had usurped the throne of Israel, that king formed an 
alliance with Rezin of Damascus for the purpose of throwing off 
the Assyrian yoke, and tried to force Ahaz of Judah to join in the 
enterprise. (See Isa. 7:1, f.) This, Ahaz, supported by the 
prophet Isaiah, refused to do. In 733-732 Tiglath-pileser came 
again into the West, overran the territory of the kingdom of Israel, 
deported the chief inhabitants of Galilee to distant parts of his 
dominions (2 Kings 15 : 29, 30), and replaced Pekah, who had been 
killed, by King Hoshea, who ruled over a greatly diminished terri- 
tory and upon whom a heavy Assyrian tribute was imposed. 
Tiglath-pileser then turned eastward and conquered Damascus, 
which his predecessors since the days of Shalmaneser III had been 
vainly trying to capture. While the Assyrian monarch was at 
Damascus, King Ahaz of Judah went thither and became his 
vassal. (See 2 Kings 16:10, f.) Thus Judah also passed under 
the Assyrian yoke. (See Part II, p. 424.) 

Tiglath-pileser IV was succeeded by Shalmaneser V, 727-722 B.c., 
and soon after the death of Tiglath-pileser, Hoshea of Israel was 
persuaded to join several petty rulers of Philistia and Egypt in 
rebelling against Assyria. In 725 an Assyrian army overran 
Hoshea’s territory, and laid siege to Samaria. The military po- 
sition of Samaria and its strong walls made it almost impregnable, 
and the siege dragged on for three years (2 Kings 17:5). Before 
the city fell, another king had ascended the throne of Assyria. 


BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 67 


He was a usurper, a general, who took the great name of Sargon, 
and who ruled from 722 to 705 3B. c. Samaria succumbed in 
Sargon’s first year and 27,290 of its inhabitants were deported. 
The discontent of the west was not at once quieted. Other states 
remained in rebellion and an Assyrian army finally defeated them 
at Raphia, southwest of Gaza, in 719 B.c. Sargon then turned 
his arms in other directions, fighting at various times with the 
kingdom of Urartu in Armenia, overcoming Carchemish, a Hittite 
kingdom on the Euphrates in 717 (see Isa. 10:9), and making 
an expedition into Arabia in 715. In 711 Ashdod revolted and 
Sargon’s Tartan or chief officer came to put the rebellion down 
(Isa. 20 : 1). 

At the beginning of Sargon’s reign his arms had been defeated in 
Babylonia, and Merodachbaladan, a Chaldean (see 2 Kings 
20 : 12), seized the throne of Babylon and held it from 721 to 709. 
Then he was defeated and Sargon took over the control of Baby- 
lonia. Merodachbaladan, however, escaped to the marsh lands at 
the head of the Persian Gulf, and survived to make trouble later. 
In 705 Sargon died and was succeeded by his son, Sennacherib, 
who ruled from 705 to 681 B. c. At the beginning of his reign 
troubles broke out in Babylonia, which cannot here be followed in 
detail. They lasted for years, and none of Sennacherib’s measures 
gave the country permanent peace. At last Sennacherib became 
so incensed that he destroyed Babylon. Her buildings were burned 
and battered down, her walls overthrown, and the Euphrates 
turned through canals into the land on which she had stood, to 
make it a marsh. One incident in the series of events which led 
up to this sad climax was the reappearance in 702 of Merodach- 
baladan, who seized the throne of Babylon and tried to stir up a 
rebellion against Assyria. He even sent letters to Hezekiah, King 
of Judah. (See 2 Kings 20:12.) At the beginning of Sennacherib’s 
reign a number of the petty kings of Philistia had withheld their 
tribute. Into this revolt Hezekiah, King of Judah, had been drawn. 
Busied with other wars, Sennacherib was unable to quell this 
rebellion until the year 701. In that year his army met the forces 
of the confederated kingdoms at Elteke in the valley of Aijalon and 
overcame them. Sennacherib then proceeded to Lachish, where he 
received the submission of the neighboring kinglets. From 
Lachish he sent a messenger who summoned Hezekiah of Judah 
to submit (cf. Isa. 36, 37). Hezekiah obeyed the summons and 


68 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


paid a heavy tribute. Space does not permit us to speak of the 
wars of Sennacherib against Elam and other countries. 

It would seem that after Tirhakah ascended the throne of Egypt 
in 688 B. c., he persuaded the kingdoms of Palestine to rebel. The 
Assyrian came west again and threatened to invade Egypt and to 
destroy Jerusalem. Isaiah then predicted that Jerusalem would be 
delivered (Isa. 31 :.5), a prediction which was fulfilled. Sennach- 
erib’s army was attacked by bubonic plague and was compelled to 
retire. 

Sennacherib was assassinated in 681 and was succeeded by his 
son, Esarhaddon, who ruled till 668. Esarhaddon rebuilt Babylon, 
which his father had destroyed, and two years before his death 
conquered all of Lower Egypt and made it an Assyrian province. 
During his reign a great horde of Scythians poured into Asia 
through the Caucasus region from southern Russia. The Assyrian 
army prevented Assyria from being overwhelmed by this horde. 
The stream of invaders was divided, one part flowing east to Media, 
the other part westward to Asia Minor. 

Esarhaddon’s son and successor, Ashurbanipal, ruled from 668 
to 626. His reign was the Augustan age of Assyria. At the 
beginning he was called upon to put down a rebellion in Egypt, and 
as trouble there recurred several times, trouble which was fomented 
by emissaries from Thebes and Nubia, he finally in 661 pushed up 
the Nile and conquered Thebes and gave it over to plunder. (See 
Nahum 3:8.) Space does not permit us to follow Ashurbanipal’s 
wars. About the middle of his reign his brother, Shamash-shum- 
ukin, who was ruling Babylon, rebelled along with many other 
vassals, and although the rebels were finally put down, the seeds 
of the decay of Assyria’s power were sown. Manasseh, King of 
Judah, as long as he lived was a faithful vassal of Esarhaddon and 
Ashurbanipal. (Cf. 2 Kings 19 : 37; 2 Chron. 33.) 

The great work of Ashurbanipal was the collection of his library 
at Nineveh. He sent to all the old temples of Babylonia and had 
copies made of their incantations, hymns, and epics. These, to- 
gether with chronicles, medical tablets, dictionaries, etc., he col- 
lected in his palace, where they were found by Layard and Rassam, 
and form the basis of our knowledge of the Assyrian and Babylonian 
language, literature, and history. With the death of Ashurbanipal, 


1 For a discussion of the reasons for the view here stated, and a presentation of other views, 
see Part II, p. 434, ff. 


BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 69 


the last Assyrian period had really closed. Though the kingdom 
continued for fifteen years more, they were but the years of a 
lingering death. ie 

(6) The Neo-Babylonian Period.—In 625, the year after Ashur- 
banipal’s death, Nabopolassar, the viceroy of Babylon, who ap- 
pears to have been a Chaldzan,! gained his independence, and es- 
tablished the Neo-Babylonian, or Chaldean empire. Nabopo- 
lassar himself reigned till 604 B. c. During his reign the power of 
the city of Babylon gradually extended over all southern Baby- 
lonia, and up the Euphrates to Carchemish. During these years 
Assyria was gradually diminishing in territory. As Assyria had 
declined, Media, which had long been in greater or less degree 
subject to Assyria, had become free, and Median kings had little 
by little gained control of the country toward Assyria. Nabo- 
polassar finally made an alliance with the Median king, and to- 
gether they overthrew Nineveh in 606 B. c. 

In 604 Necho of Egypt marched with an army to the Euphrates, 
and Nabopolassar sent his son, Nebuchadrezzar II, to meet him. 
Nebuchadrezzar defeated Necho at the battle of Carchemish, and 
hotly pursued him toward Egypt. (See Jer. 46.) The pursuit was, 
however, interrupted by the death of Nabopolassar, and the recall 
of Nebuchadrezzar to Babylon to be crowned as king. The defeat 
of Necho had made Judah a Babylonian vassal-state. Nebuchad- : 
rezzar ruled until 562 B. c., and raised Babylon to a height of power 
which rivaled that attained under the great Hammurapi. He also 
rebuilt the city in great magnificence. The palaces, temples, and 
walls of this period, unearthed by Koldewey, were most magnificent 
structures. Owing to rebellions, first of Jehoiakim and then of 
Zedekiah, kings of Judah, Nebuchadrezzar twice besieged Jeru- 
salem, once in 597, and again in 586 B. c., on both occasions cap- 
turing the city. In 586 he destroyed it. (2 Kings 24, 25.) Fol- 
lowing the Assyrian practice, which had prevailed since Tiglath- 
pileser IV, he transported considerable numbers of the more influ- 
ential people of the city each time he took it. These were settled 
in Babylonia. One colony of them was stationed near Nippur. 
Among those who were transported in 597 was a young priest, who 
afterward became the prophet Ezekiel. The colony with which he 
came was settled by the Khubur canal near Nippur. (See Ezek. 


1 The Chaldeans were a Semitic people who came into the marsh-lands of southern Babylonia 
from Arabia. We can first detect their presence in Babylonia about 1000 B. c. 


70 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


1:1.) The young king, Jehoiachin, who was also taken captive 
at that time, remained in confinement during the rest of Nebu- 
chadrezzar’s reign. He was only released by Amil-Marduk, Nebu- 
chadrezzar’s son, who succeeded his father and reigned two years. 
(See 2 Kings 25 : 27-30.) 

After Nebuchadrezzar the kingdom of Babylon rapidly declined 
through four reigns. Meantime, Cyrus, who in 553 had over- 
thrown the kingdom of Media and erected the kingdom of Persia on 
its ruins, had been gradually extending his realm to the Aégean Sea 
on the west, and to the borders of India on the east. In 538 B. c. 
Cyrus captured Babylon and overthrew Nabuna’id. 

(7) The Persian Period lasted from 538 to 331 B. c. During 
this time Babylonia was but a province of the Persian empire, 
though the Persian kings made it one of their capitals. Cyrus 
reversed the policy of transportation, which had been practised by 
the Assyrians and Babylonians for two hundred years, and per- 
mitted subject peoples to return to their lands and restore their 
institutions and worship. He sought to attach them to his govern- 
ment by gratitude instead of fear. It was owing to this policy 
that the Jewish state was once more established with Jerusalem as 
its capital, though still a Persian colony. Cambyses extended 
Persian power to Egypt in 525, and Darius I, 521-485 B. c., ex- 
tended it to India and into Europe. Under Darius the temple at 
Jerusalem was rebuilt and the Jews there tried unsuccessfully to 
regain their independence. ‘This they attempted once more under 
Artaxerxes III about 350 B. c., but his general, Bagoses, put down 
their rebellion with great severity. During the Persian period life 
in Babylonia went on as before. The old gods were worshiped, 
the old culture was continued, the same language was used, and 
many business documents written in it have come down to us. 
The earlier Persian kings employed it for their inscriptions, and in a 
short time the Persians made from it an alphabet of their own. 

(8) The Greek and Parthian Periods.—Alexander the Great 
overthrew Darius ITI, the last of the Persian kings, in 331 B. c., 
when Assyria and Babylonia passed under the sway of the Mace- 
donian. When Alexander returned from his conquest of hither 
India in 325 B. c., he planned to extend his empire westward to the 
Atlantic Ocean, and to make Babylon its capital. Plans for the - 
enlargement and beautifying of the city, so as to make it a worthy 
capital for such an empire, were under way when Alexander suddenly 


BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 71 


died in June, 323 B. c. In the final division of the world among 
Alexander’s successors, Babylonia fell to Seleucus, together with 
all the territory from the Mediterranean to the borders of India. 
As Seleucus desired a capital on the Mediterranean, so as to watch 
more successfully the movements of his rivals, he built Antioch on 
the Orontes and made it his residence. Babylon was, however, 
made the capital of the eastern half of the empire, and the king’s 
son, as viceroy, made it his residence. 

Soon after 260 8. c. Bactria and Parthia, in the eastern part of the 
empire of the Seleucid, gained their independence. In course of 
time Parthia absorbed Bactria and became an empire, which lasted 
till 230 a. p. About 150 B. c. the Parthians conquered Babylonia, 
which remained with little interruption under their sway till the 
establishment of the Sassanian kingdom of the Persians in 220 A. p. 
Babylonia was under the control of this last dynasty until the 
coming of the Mohammedans in the year 637 A.D. The old culture 
of the Babylonians, their religion, language, and writing were main- 
tained well down toward the Christian era. Copies of old Sumerian 
hymns have been found in Babylonia which bear dates as late as 
81 B. c., and business documents in Semitic are numerous.! 

7. Discoveries Which Illumine the Bible.—Discoveries in 
Babylonia and Assyria which illumine the Biblical narratives are 
numerous. The sites of many cities, such as Ur of the Chaldees, 
Erech, Babylon, Ashur, Nineveh, and Calah, have been excavated. 
The number of documents which have come to light which in one 
way or another have a bearing on the Bible is too numerous to 
mention here. An effort has been made in Part II to translate 
examples of most of them. Indeed, the greater part of the material 
in Part II was recovered by excavations in these countries. 

To Babylonia and to Egypt mankind owes the working out of the 
initial problems of civilization, the processes of agriculture, the 
making of bricks, the working of stone, the manufacture and use 
of the ordinary implements of life, the development of elementary 
mathematics and astronomy, etc. These problems were by slow 
processes independently worked out in each country through long 
ages. The higher spiritual concepts which have now become the 
heritage of man neither Babylonia nor Egypt was fitted to con- 
tribute. These came through the agency of other peoples. 

1 Those who desire fuller accounts of the history should read L. W. King’s History of Sumer and 


Akkad, London, 1910; his History of Babylon, London, 1915, and A. T. Olmstead’s History of 
Assyria, New York, 1923. 


CHAPTER III 


THE HITTITES 


A Forcotren Empire. Hittite Monuments: Sendjirli. Boghaz Koi. Other 
recent excavations. Hurrite DECIPHERMENT: Sayce’s early work. Peiser. Jensen. 
Conder. Sayce’s later work. Thompson. Delitzsch. Hrozny, Cowley. Frank. 
Hittite History: First appearance. Hyksos possibly Hittites. The Mitanni. King- 
dom of “Hittite City.’ Carchemish. Samal and Yadi. Hamath, 


1. A Forgotten Empire-——Among the peoples who are said to 
have been in Palestine in the Patriarchal age are the Hittites (Gen. 
23 : 10; 26 : 34, etc.). They are mentioned most often in the list 
of peoples whom the Israelites drove out of the country when they 
conquered it: ‘‘the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Hivite, 
and the Jebusite,” and the man is still living who first suspected 
that anything more than this could be known of them. This man 
was Prof. Sayce, of Oxford. In the inscriptions of the Egyptian 
kings of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties there is frequent 
mention of a people called Kheta. In the inscriptions of Assyrian 
kings there is also frequent mention of a people called Kha-at-tu. 
Slowly, too, during the nineteenth century rock-carvings, often 
accompanied by inscriptions in a peculiar hieroglyph, were found 
scattered through northern Syria and Asia Minor. The figures of 
gods and men on these carvings usually wore caps of a peculiarly 
pointed type and shoes turned far up at the toe. In 1876 it dawned 
upon Prof. Sayce that these were all references to the Biblical 
Hittites. He proceeded to elaborate this view in two articles pub- 
lished in the Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archeology, 
Vols. V and VII. 

About the same time the Rev. William Wright independently 
started the same idea, and gave it expression in his book, The 
Empire of the Hittites, 1884, 2d ed., 1885. At this period it was 
impossible to discern more than that there had been a widely 
scattered Hittite civilization, which might have been an empire. 

2. Hittite Monuments.—This civilization, it was seen, had left 
its monuments at Hamath in Syria, at Carchemish on the Euphra- 
tes, at various points in ancient Cappadocia, Lycaonia, and Phrygia, 

72 


THE HITTITES 73 


as well as near Smyrna in Asia Minor and on the Lydian mountains 
to the west of Sardis. In 1891 Prof. W. Max Miiller, of Philadel- 
phia, reached the conclusion from a study of the Egyptian inscrip- 
tions that the Hittites had come into Syria from the northwest, and 
that their main strength was in Asia Minor. Among the letters 
found at El-Amarna in Egypt in 1887-1888 were some from Dush- 
-ratta, a king of Mitanni. A study of these made it clear that the 
Mitanni inhabited the region on both sides of the Euphrates north 
of Carchemish, and that they were of the same stock as the Hittites. 
Our sources of information indicate that the territory of the 
Mitanni lay east of the Euphrates, but scattered monuments of 
the Hittite type are found on the west of that river. 

(1) Sendjirli—From 1888 to 1891 a German expedition exca- 
vated at Sendjirli, near the head-waters of the Kara Su in northern 
Syria, and brought to light most interesting remains of a civiliza- 
tion that was fundamentally Hittite. Inscriptions found here 
dated in the reigns of Tiglath-pileser IV and Esarhaddon were in 
Aramaic. By this time there had been an influx of Aramzans, but 
the art shows that Hittites held the place at an earlier time, and 
there is reason to believe that one of the kings mentioned here had, 
about 850 B. c., joined in a Hittite federation. 

(2) Boghaz Koi—Among the monuments known to Prof. 
Sayce at the beginning of his brilliant studies of the Hittites, were 
some from Boghaz Koi, in Asia Minor. Different travelers had 
noted that here must have been.a somewhat extensive city, adorned 
with several large buildings, all of which were ornamented with 
carvings of the peculiar Hittite type. In 1906 the late Prof. 
Winckler, of Berlin, excavating here in connection with the author- 
ities of the Turkish Museum. at Constantinople, discovered an 
archive of clay tablets inscribed in Babylonian characters. A 
group of similar tablets from Cappadocia had been previously 
purchased by the British Museum. Winckler’s discovery was im- 
portant because he found some of the tablets inscribed in Hittite 
written in cuneiform characters. Of those written in the Baby- 
lonian language, one contained a copy of the great treaty between 
Hattusil, a Hittite king, and Ramses ILof Egypt. There were also 
tablets containing Sumerian and Semitic equivalents of Hittite 
words. Owing to the long illness of Winckler which followed these 
discoveries, an illness that terminated in death, the results of this 
discovery are only now being given to the world. 


74 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


In 1907 Winckler and Puchstein, in conjunction with Makridy 
Bey of the Turkish Museum, made a thorough examination of the 
remains of walls and buildings at Boghaz Koi. The results have 
since been published in a handsome volume entitled Boghaskot, 
die Bauwerke, Leipzig, 1912; (see Figs. 23 and 25). 

(3) Other Recent Excavations—An American expedition con- 
sisting of Drs. Olmstead, Charles, and Wrench, of Cornell Univer- 
sity, explored in Asia Minor in 1907-1908. The members of this 
expedition collated all the known monuments of the Hittites, but 
so far only their collation of the inscriptions has been published. 

The Institute of Archeology of the University of Liverpool has 
also sent one or more expeditions to explore the Hittite country. 
In 1910 they excavated to some extent at Sakje-Geuze, not far 
from Sendjirli, but their results are not yet published. 

From 1911 until the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, the 
British Museum conducted an excavation at Jerablus, the site of 
ancient Carchemish. The work was directed at first by Mr. D. 
H. Hogarth and during the latter part of the time by Mr. C. L. 
Woolley. Just at the end of the war Mr. Woolley again opened 
the trenches for a little time, but found the surrounding populace 
too hostile to long continue the work. 

It was found that the site of Carchemish was occupied from 
about 1750 to 1200 B. c. by a small town, the wall of which was 
traced. This town was destroyed by an enemy about the date 
last mentioned, but was, not many years later, replaced by a much 
larger city, the wall of which, fortified with strong gates and towers, 
was also traced. This city, occupied by the Hittites until captured 
by Sargon of Assyria in 717 B. c., contained an acropolis which 
Sargon surmounted with a palace, the ruins of which were un- 
covered. ‘The expedition unearthed several inscriptions written 
in the Hittite hieroglyphic character, numerous stones carved with 
figures of men and lions, seals, jewelry, and many small objects.! 
A number of stone deities were also found, one of which is a bearded 
god of the eighth century B. c., seated on a heavy base supported 
by two lions. 

In addition to these places, Hittite remains have been observed 
at Yailé, Marash, Giaour-Kalesi, Karaburna, Kizil Dagh, Fraktin, 
Ivriz, Kara-Bel, Mount Sypilus, Tashji, Asarjik, Bulghar-Maden, 
Gurun, and Kara Dagh. One who will look up these places on a 
1See Carchemish, Pt. I, by D. G. Hogarth, London, 1914; Pt. II, by C. L. Woolley, 1921. 


THE HITTITES' 75 


map of modern Turkey will see that Hittite monuments are dis- 
tributed from near the shores of the AXgean Sea to the Euphrates 
at Carchemish and to Hamath in Syria. 

3. Hittite Decipherment. 

(1) Sayce’s Early Work.—Prof. Sayce, whose insight first 
grasped the significance of the Hittite monuments, was also the 
first to attempt the solution of the riddle which the inscriptions 
present. In 1880 he thought he had found a key to the writing, 
such as the Rosetta Stone had been to Egyptian, in the so-called 
“Boss of Tarkondemos”’; (see Fig. 26). This ‘‘boss” consisted of a 
round silver plate, in form like half an orange, which must have 
covered the knob of a staff or dagger. This had been described by 
Dr. A. D. Mordtmann, in the Journal of the German Oriental So- 
ciety in 1872. The original was then in the possession of Alexander 
Jovanoff, a numismatist of Constantinople, who had obtained it at 
Smyrna. The “boss” bore in its center a figure of the peculiar 
Hittite form, flanked on both sides by writing in the Hittite char- 
acters, while around the whole was an inscription in the cuneiform 
writing of Assyria. From this Sayce tentatively determined the 
values of a number of Hittite signs. The results were, however, 
attended with considerable uncertainty, since the Assyrian charac- 
ters were capable of being read in more than one way. Using 
the key thus obtained, Sayce enlarged his list of supposed sign-values 
and in 1884 and 1885 published as known the values of thirty-two 
Hittite signs. In the years that followed Ball and Menant took 
up the discussion of the Hittite signs, but with no decisive 
result. 

In 1889 Winckler and Abel published in one of the volumes of 
the Royal Museum at Berlin the first instalment of the text of 
the El-Amarna letters, in which there were two from Dushratta, 
King of Mitanni, in the native language of that country, though 
written in Babylonian characters. In the following year, 1890, 
Profs. Jensen, Briinnow, and Sayce all published in the Zevischrift 
fiir Assyriologie studies of this language, Sayce even venturing a 
translation of a part of the text. Each of these scholars had worked 
independently of the others, but none of them seems to have sus- 
pected that the language had anything to do with Hittite. 

(2) Peiser—In 1892 Dr. Peiser, then of Breslau University, 
published his book on the Hittite inscriptions, in which he essayed 
another method of decipherment. Layard had found four Hittite 


16 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


seals in the palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh. Peiser inferred 
that these must be seals of four Hittite kings mentioned in the 
inscriptions of that time, and proceeded to assign each seal to the 
name of a known Hittite king, and interpret the signs on the seal 
by the name of that king as spelled out in the cuneiform characters 
of the Assyrian inscriptions. Having obtained in this way tenta- 
tive values for several signs, he proceeded by inference to guess at 
other signs, and so tentatively read some inscriptions. 

(3) Jensen.—Prof. Jensen, of Marburg, wrote in that same year 
an unfavorable review of Peiser’s work. When reading the proofs 
of his review he added a postscript to say that he believed he 
had himself discovered the key to Hittite. Two years later, 1894, 
he published in the Journal of the German Oriental Society his 
method of solving the problem. Jensen’s starting-point was gained 
from inscriptions from Jerabis, the site of ancient Carchemish, 
Hamath, and other places. He inferred that a certain sign was 
the determinative for city, and that the names preceding this sign 
were names of places. Gaining in this way some values for signs, 
he read the names of some kings. He found that these names had 
nominatives ending in s and accusative cases ending in m; he ac- 
cordingly leaped to the conclusion that the Hittite language was a 
member of the Indo-European group of languages, as this is the 
only known group of tongues in which this phenomenon occurs. 
This inference later research has in part confirmed. Jensen, how- 
ever, went further and endeavored to show that the Hittites were 
the ancestors of the Armenians of later time. This theory led to 
the publication in 1898 of his book, Hittiter und Armenier. Of the 
correctness of this view he has not been able to convince other 
scholars. By this time Jensen and others had begun to see that 
the Mitannians and the Hittites were kindred peoples and wor- 
shiped the same gods. It is now recognized that Jensen correctly 
ascertained the value of some signs, though many of his guesses, 
like those of his predecessors, have proved incorrect. 

(4) Conder—In 1898 Lieut.-Col. C. R. Conder published The 
Hittites and Their Language, a work in which he presented still 
another decipherment of the inscriptions. Conder’s decipherment 
was based on a comparison of the Hittite characters with the 
Sumerian pictographs on the one hand and the syllabary which 
was used by Greeks in Cyprus, Caria, and Lydia on the other. 
He assumed that if a picture had in Sumerian a certain syllabic 


THE HITTITES 77 


value, and if the Cypriotic syllabary presented a character some- 
what resembling it which had a similar value, the Hittite character 
which most closely resembled these must have the same value, since 
the Hittites lived between the two peoples who used the other 
syllabaries. This system of decipherment has attracted no ad- 
herents because it is based on a fallacious inference. It does not 
follow because a nation lives between two other nations, that its 
institutions are kindred to those of its neighbors. One could not 
explain writings of the Indian tribes of Arizona, for example, by 
comparing them with books printed in English in St. Louis and in 
Spanish in Los Angeles! In 1899 Messerschmidt, who was col- 
lecting in one body all the known Hittite inscriptions for publi- 
cation, published a study of the language of Mitanni,! which ad- 
vanced our knowledge of the language of the letters of Dushratta. 
Messerschmidt’s later publication of the Hittite inscriptions? made 
it far easier for scholars to study the subject. 

(5) Sayce’s Later Work.—Stimulated by Jensen’s efforts, Prof. 
Sayce returned to the study of Hittite in 1903, and published in the 
Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology of that year (Vol. 
XXV) anew decipherment. He followed Jensen’s method, accept- 
ing a number of Jensen’s readings as proved, and with the original- 
ity and daring that characterize so much of his work, launched many 
new readings. Some of these have commended themselves to his 
successors. 

In 1909 Ferdinand Bork returned to the problem of the language 
of Mitanni, and published a pretty complete decipherment of 
the Mitannian tablets in the El-Amarna letters. In 1911 Dr. B. B. 
Charles, the philologist of the Cornell expedition to Asia Minor, 
published as Part II of Volume I of Travels and Studies in the Nearer 
East, which is to embody the results of the Cornell expedition, his 
collation of the Hittite inscriptions. This publication added some 
new texts to those previously known. In 1912 Prof. Clay, of Yale, 
rendered the subject of Hittiteology a distinct service by including 
in his volume of Personal Names from Cuneiform Inscriptions of 
the Cassite Period a list of Hittite and Mitannian proper names, and 
a list of the nominal and verbal elements which enter into the com- 
position of such names. 


1In the Mitteilungen der vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft, 1899, Heft 4. 
2 Tbid., 1900, Hefte 4 and_5. 


78 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


(6) Thompson.—Another attempt on a large scale to unravel 
the mystery of the Hittite inscriptions is that of R. Campbell 
Thompson, ‘‘A New Decipherment of the Hittite Hieroglyphs,”’ 
published in Archeologia, second series, Vol. XIV, Oxford, 1913. 
Mr. Thompson was a member of the British expedition which ex- 
cavated Carchemish, and gained the idea which gave him the 
starting-point for his decipherment from an inscription excavated 
by that expedition. This inscription contained many proper names, 
and, after passing it and looking at it every day for a long time, it 
occurred to Mr. Thompson that a certain elaborate sign which fre- 
quently occurred in it might be a part of the name of the Hittite 
King Sangar, who is frequently mentioned by Ashurnasirpal II and 
Shalmaneser III of Assyria. In seeking proof for this Mr. Thomp- 
son was led into a study of the texts which resulted in a new inter- 
pretation of the Hittite signs. His work is logical at every point, 
he makes no inference without first examining all the occurrences 
in the known texts of the group of signs in question, and he tests 
his inferences wherever possible by the known results of a study of 
Mitannian and cuneiform Hittite. It is too soon to pronounce a 
final verdict, but it looks as though Thompson had materially 
advanced the decipherment of Hittite. 

(7) Delitzsch._—After the death of Prof. Winckler, the cuneiform 
tablets which he had discovered at Boghaz Koi were turned over to 
Ernst Weidner for publication. That publication is soon to appear, 
but Prof. Friedrich Delitzsch, under whose general direction 
Weidner is working, published in May, 1914, a study based on 
twenty-six fragments of lexicographical texts which are to appear 
in Weidner’s work. These texts defined Hittite words in Sumerian 
and in Assyrian. Although the texts are very fragmentary, Prof. 
Delitzsch has been able to gain in this way a vocabulary of about 
165 Hittite words, the meanings of most of which are known, and 
to ascertain some facts about the grammar of Hittite. 

We are, it would seem, just on the eve of a complete mastery of 
the secrets of the Hittite inscriptions. The more our knowledge 
of the Hittites grows, the less simple seems the problem of their 
racial affinities. Some features of their speech clearly resemble 
features of the Indo-European family of languages, but other 
features would seem to denote Tartar affinities. In a number of 
instances the influence of the Assyrian language can clearly be 
traced. The same confusion presents itself when we study the 


UOECHICLITES* 79 


pictures of Hittites as they appear in Egyptian reliefs. Two dis- 
tinct types of face are there portrayed. One type has high cheek 
bones, oblique eyes, and wears a pigtail, like the peoples of Mon- 
golia and China; the other has a clean-cut head and face which 
resemble somewhat the early Greeks. These may well have been 
Aryans. That there was a strain in the Hittite composition that 
came from Turkestan or that came through that country is also 
indicated by the fact that the Hittites were the first of the peo- 
ples of western Asia to use the horse. Evidence of the use of 
the horse as a domestic animal by the people of Turkestan at an 
early date was brought to light by the excavations of Prof. Pum- 
pelly* in that land, so that the presence of horses among the Hittites 
naturally suggests some connection with that region. Among the 
Hittite allies Semitic Amorites are also pictured. These have re- 
ceding foreheads and projecting beards. 

(8) Hrozny, a Bohemian scholar, published in the Mitteilungen 
der deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft zu Berlin, No. 56 (December, 
1915), a résumé of a new study of Hittite decipherment. This was 
followed in 1917 by the publication of a book on the Language of 
the Hittites, and in 1919 by a book on Hittite Cuneiform Texts 
from Boghaz Koi.? These studies are based on copies of cuneiform 
tablets at Constantinople made by Professor Hrozny and Dr. 
Figulla before the war. Hrozny concludes that Hittite is not only 
an Indo-European language, but that it also belongs to the western 
half of the Indo-European family. In other words, he finds it 
more closely related to Greek, Latin, Keltic, and the Teutonic 
tongues than to the Slavonic, Lithuanian, Armenian, and Persian 
languages, or to Sanscrit and its daughters. According to Hrozny, 
then, the Hittites came from western Europe, or the center from 
which the western European peoples radiated. He thinks they 
crossed into Asia by way of the Bosphorus. He supports his con- 
tention by some most interesting philological analogies. The 
Mitanni, on the other hand, belonged, he thinks, to the eastern 
half of the Indo-European family. They were closely related to 
the Slavs, Lithuanians, Armenians, Persians, etc. The indications 
seem to be that they entered Asia by way of the Caucasus. That 
the ruling class of the Hittites was of Indo-European stock and 


1See Pumpelly, Explorations in Turkestan, Washington, 1908, I, p. 50, f. wae 
* Dic Sprache der Héthiter, Leipzig, and Hethitische Keilschrifttexte aus Boghazkoi, Leipzig. 


80 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


that the grammatical structure of the language as well as many 
elements of its vocabulary are Indo-European has been further 
demonstrated by Ferdinand Sommers! and is acknowledged by 
Professor Bloomfield.? The present writer’s own study of the 
language has convinced him of the truth of this view. The de- 
clension of the noun, the general scheme of the conjugation of the 
verb, the substantive verb “to be” are all Indo-European. The 
pronouns are practically identical with those of Latin and of 
some of the older Greek dialects. Many of the roots of individual 
words are identical with those in Greek and Latin, while others are 
identical with those in the Teutonic group of languages. All this 
has been learned by the study of the Hittite documents written 
in the cuneiform character which Winckler discovered at Boghaz 
Koi. All that remains for a complete understanding of the lan- 
guage is to work out more completely the meanings of words and the 
finer shades of grammatical construction. This applies to the 
Hittite cuneiform texts only; the hieroglyphic Hittite character 
still awaits complete decipherment. 

(9) While the cuneiform Hittite has attracted much attention in 
recent years, the hieroglyphic Hittite has not been neglected. In 
1920 Dr. A. E. Cowley in his ‘“‘Schweich Lectures” on the Hittites* 
devoted a chapter to the decipherment of these characters. He 
started anew as though nothing had previously been done, collect- 
ing groups of signs from different inscriptions, grouping those 
which were followed by the same determinative and assuming 
that they were proper names; he grouped those that were written 
by means of the same signs in the different inscriptions, tentatively 
equated them with known names that would be likely to be men- 
tioned, and so obtained probable values for many signs. 

(10) A similar effort has more recently been made by a German 
scholar, Dr. Carl Frank,* who has followed much the same method 
as Cowley, but has accumulated a larger number of names and 
worked out his values in greater detail. Possibly these scholars 
are on the right track, though time and further discovery will be 
needed to determine this. 

1See Hethitisches, Leipzig, 1920-1922. 

* See Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 41, pp. 195-210. 

3London, 1920. 


4 Die sogenannten hettitischen Hieroglypheninschriften, Leipzig, 1923,.in Band XVI of Ab- 
handlungen fur die Kunde des Morgenlandes, edited by Geiger, Littmann, and Steindorf. 


THE HITTITES 81 


4. Hittite History. 

(1) First Appearance——The earliest reference to the Hittites 
which we have in any written record occurs in a Babylonian chron- 
icle, which states that ‘“‘against Shamsu-ditana the men of the 
country Khattu marched.”* Shamsu-ditana was the last king of 
the first dynasty of Babylon. His reign terminated in 1924 3. c. 
Khattu land, as will appear further on, was the name later given 
to the Hittite settlement in Cappadocia. One would naturally sup- 
pose that the name would have the same significance here, but of 
this we cannot be certain. The tablet on which this chronicle was 
written was inscribed in the Persian or late Babylonian period, but 
there is evidence that it was copied from an earlier original. If its 
statement is true, the Hittites had made their appearance in history 
and were prepared to mingle in that mélée of the races which 
occurred when the first dynasty of Babylon was overthrown. 
Nothing is said in the chronicle as to the location of the land of 
Khattu, but there can be no doubt that the Hittites approached 
Babylonia from the northwest. Their seat must have been in the 
region where we later find the Hittites, or Mitanni. At what 
period the Hittites came into this region we can only conjecture. 
The excavations at Sakje-Geuze reveal a civilization there extending 
back to about 3000 B. c., which resembled that found at Susa in 
Elam belonging to the same period. This civilization may not 
have been Hittite in its beginnings. Mr. Woolley, a member of 
the British expedition which has excavated at Carchemish, in a 
study of the objects found in tombs at Carchemish and at other 
places near by, thinks it possible that the coming of the Hittites is 
marked by a transition period in the art—a period the termination 
of which he marks by the date of the fall of the first dynasty of 
Babylon. It may well be that Indo-Europeans followed by Mon- 
gols came about 2100 or 2000 into this region, or that the Mongols 
were there earlier and that the Indo-Europeans then came. In the 
resultant civilization it would seem, from the information that we 
have, that there was a mingling of the two races; (see F ig. 24). 

(2) Hyksos Possibly Hittites —Since the Hittites were able to 
help overthrow the first dynasty of Babylon, some scholars have 
recognized the possibility that those invaders of Egypt who estab- 
lished the dynasties called Hyksos may have been Hittites, or may 
have been led by Hittites. There is much evidence that many 

1See L. W. King, Chronicles Concerning Early Babylonian Kings, London, 1907, Vol. II, p. 22. 


82 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Semites entered Egypt at that time, but as Syria and Palestine 
were peopled with Semites earlier than this, such an invasion would 
naturally have had many Semites among its camp followers, if 
not in its armies, even if the leaders were Hittites. At present, 
however, this is but a possibility. Some slight evidence in favor of 
the possibility may be found in the name of the king of Jerusalem 
who was a vassal of Amenophis IV, and who wrote the letters from 
Jerusalem which are in the El-Amarna collection. (See Part II, 
p. 403, ff.) His name was Abdi-Hepa, and Hepa was a Hittite and 
Mitannian deity. Abdi-Hepa had grown up a trusted subject of 
the Egyptians. His ancestors must, therefore, have been in Pales- 
tine for some time. A settlement of Hittites there in the Hyksos 
days would account for this. The twenty-third chapter of Genesis 
represents the city of Hebron as in the possession of the Hittites 
when Abraham purchased the cave of Machpelah as a place of 
burial for his dead, and, though many scholars regard Genesis 23, 
which gives this account, as a late composition, its representation 
would receive some confirmation from archeology, if the Hyksos 
were Hittites. 

There is a possibility that the Hittites were in southern Pales- 
tine earlier than this. Brugsch! thought that he found in an 
inscription in the Louvre, written by an officer of Amenemhet I, 
King of Egypt, 2000-1970 B. c., a statement that this officer had _ 
destroyed the palaces of the Hittites near the Egyptian frontier of 
Palestine. This reading is still defended by Prof. Sayce,? though 
other Egyptologists, such as W. Max Miiller? and Breasted,* claim 
that the word that was thought to be Hittites is not a proper name, 
but a common noun meaning nomads. The text of the passage is 
uncertain, and no important inference can in any case be made 
from it. 

During the period when we obtain glimpses of the history of the ~ 
Hittites, they were never united in one empire. Different king- 
doms flourished here and there, such as that of the Mitanni in 
Mesopotamia, the Hittites at Boghaz Koi, the kingdoms of Car- 
chemish, of Hamath, and Tyana. These flourished at different 
times all the way from 1400 to 700 B. c., and there were doubtless 
other kingdoms also, for the Hittite sculptures near Smyrna and 


1 History of Egypt, II, 404, 405. 

2 Expository Times, November, 1914, p. 91. 

8 Asien und Europa nach altigyptischen Denkmélern, 319, note 3. 
4 Ancient Records, Egypt, 1, 227, 228. 


THE HITTITES 83 


Manissia cannot have been made by any of these, unless possibly 
the great Hittite kingdom at Boghaz Koi may once have extended 
its power to the A‘gean. 

(3) The Mitanni.—The earliest of these kingdoms which we can 
trace is that of the Mitanni. When Thothmes III of Egypt ex- 
tended his conquests to the Euphrates in 1468 B. c., he came into 
contact with the Mitanni. The king of the country is not named, 
but it was claimed that her chiefs hid themselves in caves.1 There 
is some reason for believing that their chief city was at Haran? in 
Mesopotamia, the city where Abraham sojourned for a time (Gen. 
11:31; 12:4). If this be true, it gives a new meaning to Ezek. 
16 : 3: ““The Amorite was thy father and thy mother was a Hittite.” 
Thothmes evidently touched the kingdom of Mitanni on its western 
border. He did not penetrate its heart or overcome its king. 
Although he took tribute, he does not tell us the name of the king 
of the Mitanni whose armies he fought. 

Half a century later the king of the Mitanni was Artatama I. 
He was a contemporary of Thothmes IV of Egypt, who ruled 
1420-1411 B. c. Perhaps it was their mutual fear of the rising 
power of the Hittite kingdom at Boghaz Koi that led Artatama and 
Thothmes IV to form an alliance. At all events, such an alliance 
was made, and Thothmes married a daughter of Artatama, though 
Artatama’s grandson says that the Egyptian king sent his request 
for her hand seven times before Artatama yielded to his solicita- 
tions. Artatama I was succeeded by Shutarna I, whose reign over- 
lapped a part of that of Amenophis III of Egypt, 1411-1375 B. c. 
Among the queens of Amenophis III was a daughter of Shutarna I. 
Before the reign of Amenophis III had ended Shutarna I had been 
succeeded by Dushratta, who continued the friendly relations with 
Egypt. Dushratta’s reign also overlapped in part that of Ameno- 
phis IV of Egypt, 1375-1357 3B. c., and Dushratta wrote several 
letters to both of these Egyptian kings. It is from these letters 
that we gain most of our information about Mitanni. 

Meanwhile the great kingdom of the Hittites at Boghaz Koi had 
entered upon its era of expansion under Subbiluliuma, who pushed 
his conquests first eastward and then southward. Dushratta feared 
to meet the Hittite in battle and retired to the eastward, allowing 
much of his country to be overrun. This land Subbiluliuma gave 


1 Breasted’s Ancient Records, Egypt, Il, § 773. 
2 Winckler in Mitteilungen der vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft, 1913, Heft 4, p. 81. 


84 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


to one of his allies, and Dushratta was murdered soon afterward by 
his son, Sutatarra, who usurped the crown. Soon after this the 
Assyrians invaded the lands of the Mitanni from the east, and the 
land, already distracted by its internal divisions, was thrown into a 
worse confusion. At this juncture Subbiluliuma crossed the 
Euphrates again and entered Mitannian territory. He was ac- 
companied by settlers who brought cattle, sheep, and horses to 
remain in the country. Advised by an oracle, he deposed Sutatarra 
and placed upon the throne Mattiuaza, a son of Dushratta, who 
had been heir-apparent and who had fled when his father was 
murdered. To Mattiuaza Subbiluliuma gave his daughter in 
marriage, and Mitanni became a vassal state of the Hittite realm. 
After this our sources tell us no more of its history. 

Near the Mitanni were the Harri, who were probably of the same 
race, for in the time of Subbiluliuma they were ruled first by 
Artatama II, a brother of Dushratta, and then by Sutarna II. 
This state also became a part of Subbiluliuma’s kingdom. 

(4) Kingdom of “ Hittite City.’—The wave of migration from 
the northeast which brought the Mitanni into upper Mesopotamia 
had swept on westward into Cappadocia, where the greatest Hittite 
state afterward developed. The monuments erected by the Hittites 
were nearly all of a religious character. In the earlier time they 
wrote few historical inscriptions. Such inscriptions as we have in 
Hittite hieroglyphs seem to come from the later periods and to 
record alliances. It is probable that in the development of the 
Hittite state in Cappadocia first one city and then another had the 
upper hand. The Hittite monuments at Eyuk are of a more primi- 
tive character than those at Boghaz Koi, and it is natural to suppose 
that a Hittite state flourished here before the rise of the one at 
Boghaz Koi. Be that as it may, the most powerful Hittite mon- 
archy of which we know arose at Boghaz Koi, which they called 
“Hittite City.”” This monarchy emerged about 14008. c. Its first 
king was Hattusil I, of whom we know no more than that he was 


the founder of the great dynasty which ruled from the “Hittite — 


City” for two hundred years. 

The king who laid the foundations of the greatness of this dynasty 
was Subbiluliuma, the next king, whose conquests over the Mitanni 
and Harri we have already traced. He conquered also a number of 
neighboring states, and compelled them to sign with him treaties of 
alliance which made them his vassals. Chronicles of these events 


ny a 


THE HITTITES 85 


were discovered by Winckler among the clay tablets found at 
Boghaz Koi. Subbiluliuma also turned his armies southward and 
conquered Syria down to the confines of Palestine. These con- 
quests were in progress when some of the El-Amarna letters, writ- 
ten to Amenophis IV of Egypt and translated in Part II, p. 402, ff., 
were written. Here he pursued the same policy that he had pur- 
sued in Mesopotamia, and compelled the conquered countries to 
enter into treaties with him, which subjugated them to his will. 
Among the kings so treated was the Amorite King Aziru, who at 
that time ruled Amorites living in the southern part of the valley 
between the Lebanon mountain ranges and in the region afterward 
occupied by the tribe of Asher. They also held some of the 
southern Phoenician cities. This represents the most southerly 
extension of Subbiluliuma’s power. 

Whether Subbiluliuma also extended his conquests to the west 
of Asia Minor, we have no means of knowing. Some scholars sup- 
pose that he had done so before he began the conquest of Mitanni. 
Certain it is that Hittite rock sculptures of gigantic size exist in 
the mountains near Smyrna and Manissia, to the west of Sardis. 
These sculptures represent the great Hittite goddess. Near 
Smyrna there are also the remains of great buildings. We know of 
no Hittite monarch who would be so likely to have carried Hittite 
power to these parts as Subbiluliuma. If he did so, possibly in 
later time the Hittites here became independent. At all events, 
some centuries later they were known to Ionian Greeks in this 
region, for Homer’s Odyssey, Book XI, line 521, records the tradition 
that some Hittites were killed with Eurypylos. 

When Subbiluliuma died he was succeeded by his son, Arandas, 
whose occupation of the throne was brief, and who seems to have 
been without effective power. After a short time he was replaced 
by his brother, Mursil, who appears to have enjoyed a long reign. 
Subbiluliuma, called by the Egyptians Seplel, was reigning when 
Amenophis IV of Egypt came to the throne in 1375 B. c., for he 
sent an embassy to congratulate him, and Mursil appears to have 
reigned until after the year 1320 8. c. The two reigns, therefore, 
covered more than half a century. The first years of Mursil’s 
reign were apparently passed in peace, but soon after 1320 Shal- 
maneser I invaded the countries in the eastern part of the Hittite 
confederacy, conquering all the territory east of the Euphrates, and a 
considerable territory to the west of that river. Meantime, Mursil 


86 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


had renewed the treaty with the Amorites of Syria, whose king 
at this time was Abbi-Teshub, or Abi-Adda. Ere long, however, 
trouble arose for him on his southern border. Seti I of Egypt came 
to the throne in 1313 B. c., and began a series of vigorous campaigns 
for the conquest of Palestine. In time he came face to face with 
the Hittite power in Syria. 

At this juncture Mursil died and was succeeded by his son, 
Mutallu, who soon met Seti I in battle and convinced that monarch 
that it was unwise to attempt to extend Egypt’s empire in Asia to 
the Euphrates, as Thothmes III had done. Owing to internal 
troubles in Assyria the eastern border of the Hittite realm was left 
undisturbed for a considerable time, during which Mutallu could 
devote himself to other matters. In 12928. c. Ramses II succeeded 
Seti I as king of Egypt and soon began vigorously to push Egyptian 
conquests into northern Syria. Mutallu recognized the impor- 
tance of the struggle and collected a large army from all his allies. 
These forces were drawn from all parts of Asia Minor; even the 
countries of the extreme west contributed their quota. Aleppo and 
states in that region also contributed their share. A great battle 
was fought at Kadesh on the Orontes in 1287 B.c., in which Mutallu, 
by surprising his foe, disorganized a part of the Egyptian forces 
and endangered the life of Ramses himself. By the opportune 
arrival of reinforcements the Egyptians escaped entire defeat, so 
that the result was a drawn battle. 

The battle had, however, cost the Hittites much. The slaughter 
of their forces had been enormous. Among the slain were many 
chieftains, including the king of Aleppo. The Amorites at once 
threw off their allegiance to the Hittites, and many of the other 
troops mutinied. Mutallu was assassinated. He was succeeded 
by Hattusil II, the Khetasar of the Egyptian inscriptions. 

Assyria had become weak, so that Hattusil was no longer pressed 
upon his eastern border. After a little he reduced the Amorites 
once more to submission, and compelled them to take back their 
king, Put-akhi, whom they had driven out at the time of their 
rebellion against Mutallu. He gave Put-akhi a Hittite princess 
fora wife. Later, about 1271 8. c., Hattusil concluded an offensive 
and defensive alliance with Ramses II of Egypt. The treaty which 
guaranteed this alliance has come down to us, and is the first inter- 
national treaty the details of which are known to us. (See Chapter 
T3917) 


THE HITTITES 87 


Hattusil II must have enjoyed a long reign, but we do not know 
the date of his death. He had two successors, Dudkhalia and 
Arnuanta, whose reigns are known to us, and who continued the 
sway of the dynasty down to about 1200 B.c. They were respec- 
tively the,son and grandson of Hattusil II. An edict of Dudkhalia 
concerning the vassal states has survived, in which the name of 
Eni-Teshub, King of Carchemish, appears. Carchemish would 
seem to have been the chief of the allied states. Of Arnuanta we 
have no details, though two fragments of royal edicts and a seal of 
his have come down tous. He was called ‘‘the great king, the son of 
Dudkhalia.”’ After him our sources fail, and the story ends in 
darkness. We know, however, that the days of the power of this 
dynasty were over. Egyptian sources tell us that tribes from west- 
ern Asia Minor and from beyond the sea swept over Cilicia and 
northern Syria soon after the year 1200 B. c., and there was then 
no Hittite power there to restrain them. 

(5) Carchemish.—Of the other Hittite kingdoms far less is known. 
Carchemish, which, as we have just seen, played an important part 
in the federation of the great Hittite power, continued its existence 
for several centuries. In the time of Ashurnasirpal II and Shal- 
meneser III the kingdom of Carchemish entered into alliance with 
these kings and preserved its existence by becoming their vassal. 
Judging from the meager reports hitherto published of the British 
excavation at Carchemish, this was a flourishing period in the 
history of the city. A hundred years later, in the reign of Sargon, 
Pisiris, who was then king of Carchemish, defied the Assyrian, who 
brought the kingdom to an end in 717 8. c. (Cf. Isa. 10 : 9.) 

(6) Samal and Yadii—When the Arameans swept westward 
about 1300 B. c. they apparently dislodged the Hittites from a 
number of their sites and occupied their country. Among the 
places so occupied was the site of Sendjirli mentioned above. All 
the carvings found among its architectural remains reveal the in- 
fluence of Hittite art, but the inscriptions found there are in 
Aramaic. These inscriptions show that there were in that region 
two petty kingdoms named, respectively, Samal and Yadi. The 
names of several kings of these monarchies who ruled between 850 
and 730 B. c. have been recovered. They are all Aramzan. 

(7) Hamath.—Farther to the south, at Hamath on the Orontes, a 
Hittite kingdom existed in the time of David. Its king was then 
called Toi or Tou, who made an alliance with David (2 Sam. 8 : 9, f; 


88 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


1 Chron. 18:9, f.). This kingdom was probably the outgrowth 
of the earlier occupation of the Orontes valley, three hundred 
years before, by the Hittites of the great empire. It continued 
until the time of Ahab. Its king was then Irhulina, who along with 
Ahab, Ben-Hadad of Damascus, and several other kings made an 
alliance to resist the encroachments of Shalmaneser III of Assyria 
in 854.B.c. (See Part II, p. 418, ff.) Irhulina caused several in- 
scriptions to be made on stone, which survived at Hamath until 
our time. According to Mr. Thompson’s interpretation of them 
they are all records of his various alliances. By the next century, 
however, the Arameans had captured Hamat , for in the reigns of 
Tiglath-pileser IV (745-727) and of Sargon (722-705 pz. c.) the 
names of its kings were Semitic. These names were, respectively, 
Enu-ilu and Yau-bidi, or Ilu-bidi. 

We gain glimpses also of a number of other Hittite states. 
There was, for example, the state of Kummukh, which lay to the 
west of the Euphrates, and another in western Cilicia, that had its 
center at Tyana, the modern Bor. These, states appear to have 
reached their zenith after the fall of the great Hittite dynasty which 
had its capital at Boghaz Koi. Doubtless as time goes on we shall 
learn of the existence of many other small Hittite kingdoms which 
flourished at one time or another. At some time, either when the 
Hyksos were making their way into Egypt or when Subbiluliuma 
was pushing southward into Syria, the Hittites mentioned in the 
Old Testament must have made some small settlements in Pales- 
tine. Here the Hebrews came into contact with them. They 
were really an unimportant outlying fringe of the great Hittite 
people, but they had the good fortune to have their names preserved 
in the most immortal literature in the world, the Bible, and so their 
memory was ever kept alive, while that of their more illustrious 
kinsmen was utterly forgotten. It is only archeological research 
that has restored something of the original perspective. | 

The Hittite laws, written in cuneiform on tablets found by 
Winckler at Boghaz Koi, are translated in Part II, Chapter 
XV. 


CHAPTER IV 


PALESTINE AND ITS EXPLORATION 


THE Lanp: Rainfall. Earty Expioration: Place names. EARLY AMERICAN 
EXPLORATIONS: Robinson and Smith. Lynch. American exploration societies. 
PALESTINE EXPLORATION Funp: Warren’s excavations at Jerusalem. ‘The survey of 
Palestine. Exploration of Lachish. Bliss’s excavation at Jerusalem. Excavation 
at Azekah. At Tell es-Safi (Gath?). Tell el-Judeideh. At Marash (Moresheth- 
Gath). Gezer. Beth-shemesh. Exploring the Wilderness of Zin. Tur GERMAN 
PALESTINE Society: Guthe’s excavation at Jerusalem. Megiddo. Taanach. 
Capernaum. Jericho. THe AMERICAN SCHOOL AT JERUSALEM. SAMARIA. PaAr- 
KER’S EXCAVATIONS AT JERUSALEM. Latest EXCAVATIONS. 


1. The Land.—Palestine is a very different land from either 
Egypt or Mesopotamia. They are made by the irrigation of 
rivers. Palestine is fertilized by rain from heaven. In them 
the scenery is monotonous; they are river valleys each of which 
was once in part an arm of the sea, but now filled up by the gradual 
deposit of mud. Palestine was formed in one of the greatest geo- 
logical upheavals the earth ever experienced. This was nothing 
less than a great rift in the earth’s crust extending from the Lebanon 
mountains to the Indian Ocean. The strata on the west side of this 
rift slipped downward past those on its east side for a mile or more. 
Those on the west were bent at different points in this long course 
in different ways, but the result of the rift itself was to form the 
Jordan valley and the bed of the Dead Sea, the valley which runs 
from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Akaba, and that deep rift be- 
tween Asia and Africa which forms the Red Sea itself. 

In Palestine the strata on the west of this rift bent up into two 
parallel ridges, to the west of which a narrow plain of varying 
width, ancient Philistia, rises from the sea. To the east of this 
rift the land remained at approximately its old level. The various 
ridges of the country are, on account of the birth-pangs of their 
origin, intersected with valleys innumerable, so that in no country 
of the world can such variety of scenery and climate be found within 
such narrow limits. 

Rainfall.—This land, with all its variety of form, is redeemed 
from the desert by the moisture which the west winds drive in 

89 


90 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


from the Mediterranean Sea. These winds in the winter months 
bring clouds, which, when they come into contact with the colder 
air over the elevated hills, deposit their moisture in rain. The 
Jordan valley is so warm that little rain falls upon it, but it drains 
the water from the rainfall on both sides of it. Just so far back 
as the clouds reach before their moisture is exhausted, just so far 
the fertile land extends; beyond that is the Arabian Desert. When 
the rainfall during a winter is good, bountiful crops are raised the 
following season; when it is scant, the harvest fails and famine 
follows. In Egypt and Babylonia a man could water his garden 
by kicking a hole in a dyke; they were lands which were watered 
“with thy foot” (Deut. 11 : 10); Palestine was dependent on heaven 
for its life, and we cannot doubt that this fact was one of the 
instruments for the training of the Israelites for their great religious 
mission. Ina land of such variety—a land in which for nine months 
in the year snow-capped Hermon may be seen from many an ele- 
vated point and from the whole stretch of the tropical Jordan valley, 
where oleanders are blooming and mustard seeds are growing into 
trees—it was possible to think of God in a way that was at least 
more difficult in Egypt or in Mesopotamia. 

Here in this marvelous land, which formed a bridge between 
the two oldest civilizations of the world, the men lived to whom 
God committed the task of writing most of the Bible. This was 
the earthly home of the Son of God. 

Even before the Hebrews came into it, many had crossed this 
bridge and some had paused long upon it. Living here they had 
left the remains of their homes, their cities, and their civilizations. 
Archeology is now recovering these. After the time of Christ 
various races and civilizations continued to pass over the bridge. 
Their remains buried those left by earlier men. The story of the 
recovery of these earlier remains is, accordingly, not only of great 
interest, but often of great value to the reader of the Bible. 

2. Early Exploration.—The misfortunes which overtook Juda 
in the years 70 and 132-135 a. D., in consequence of the Jewish 
rebellions against Rome, led to the paganizing of Jerusalem and the 
expulsion of the Jews from Judea. At this period Christianity was 
a struggling and a persecuted religion, too busy working its way 
to take an active interest in the land of its birth. When Constan- 
tine early in the fourth century made Christianity the religion of 
the Roman Empire, all this was changed. Both Constantine and 


PALESTINE AND ITS EXPLORATION 91 


his mother, Helena, took the deepest interest in identifying the holy 
places in Jerusalem, and a stream of pilgrims began at once to visit 
the land. The earliest of these to leave us an account of his 
travels was a pilgrim from Bordeaux who visited Palestine in 333 
A.D. As he was anxious to see the principal places hallowed by the 
bodily presence of Christ and the heroes of Scripture, he visited 
places in different parts of the country. He was followed by many 
others. The stream has been almost continuous down to the 
present time. As the aim of these travelers was devotional and 
they possessed little scholarly training or critical faculty, their 
works are of secondary value to the modern student. They did, 
however, prevent that loss of knowledge of the country to which 
Babylonia was subjected for so many centuries. 

Place Names.—At the very beginning of this period Eusebius of 
Cesarea, a contemporary of Constantine, compiled a list of the 
place names of Palestine which are mentioned in the Bible. The 
names were arranged in alphabetical order, the events for which the 
places are celebrated were given, in many instances identifications 
with places existing in the fourth century were proposed, and the 
distances from other well-known places mentioned. In the next 
century this work was translated into Latin by Jerome, who lived 
many years at Bethlehem and traveled extensively in Palestine, 
and who died in 420 a. p. It is called the Onomasticon. 

3. Early American Explorations.—As the reader approaches mod- 
ern times he finds the works of some of the pilgrims assuming a more 
scientific character. To some extent, too, these works were sup- 
plemented by those of travelers like Chateaubriand,’ Burckhardt,” 
and Lamartine.?’ 

(1) Robinson and Smith—tThe scientific study of the localities 
and antiquities of Palestine was, however, begun by an American, 
the late Prof. Edward Robinson, of Union Seminary, New York. 
Robinson was fully equipped with Biblical knowledge, and was 
thoroughly familiar with Josephus and other works bearing on his 
subject. He possessed the critical faculty in a high degree, and 
combined with it a keen constructive faculty. In 1838 and again 
in 1852 he traveled through Palestine with Eli Smith, a missionary. 
They were equipped with compass, telescope, thermometer, and 


1 Ttinéraire de Paris a Jérusalem, Paris, 1811. 
2 Travels in Syria, 1821. 
8 Souvenirs, impressions, et paysages, pendant un voyage en Orient, Paris, 1835. 


92 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


measuring tape. His knowledge of history enabled Robinson to 
look beneath many traditions. With keen penetration he discerned 
under the guise of many a modern Arabic name the form of a 
Biblical original, and accomplished more for the scientific study of 
Biblical Palestine than any of his predecessors. As he traveled 
he also noted and briefly described such remains of antiquity as 
could be seen above ground. The results of Robinson’s first jour- 
ney were embodied in his Biblical Researches, New York, 1841. 
In the second edition, London, 1856, the results of the second 
journey were embodied, and the number of volumes increased to 
three. The impetus given to the exploration of Palestine by the 
labors of Robinson was continued by Tobler, Guérin, Renan, and 
many others.! 

(2) Lynch—Meantime, another American, Lieut. W. F. Lynch, 
of the United States Navy, rendered an important service by the 
exploration in 1848 of the Dead Sea. In April and May of that 
year about three weeks were spent in exploring that body of 
water. Lieut. Lynch was accompanied by Dr. Anderson, a geolo- 
gist. The party traversed the sea back and forth in two metal 
boats that had been launched on the Sea of Galilee and floated 
down the Jordan. The fact that the Jordan valley is lower than 
the level of the sea had never been recognized until 1837, and, 
until the visit of Lynch and Anderson, the depth of the depression 
was only a matter of conjecture. By this expedition it was scien- 
tifically determined that the surface of the Dead Sea is 1,300 feet 
lower than that of the Mediterranean. 

(3) American Exploration Societies —The work of American 
exploration was later continued by the American Exploration 
Society, founded in 1870. Under its auspices, Rev. John A. Paine, 
of Tarrytown, New York, visited the Holy Land. One of the 
results of his visit was the identification of Pisgah.’ 

Later an American Palestine Exploration Society was organized. 
This Society employed Mr. Rudolph Meyer, an engineer, to make a 
map of Palestine, and from 1875 to 1877 also employed Rev. Selah 
Merrill, who afterward was for many years the U. S. Consul at 


1 For a more complete account see F. J. Bliss, The Development of Palestine Exploration, New 
York, 1906. 
2 See Official Report of the United States Expedition to Explore the Dead Sea and the River Jordan, 
Baltimore, 1852. 
* See his “Identification of Pisgah” in the third Statement of the American Exploration Society, 
70. 


PALESTINE AND ITS EXPLORATION 93 


Jerusalem, as explorer. Dr. Merrill gathered much archeological 
information, especially in the country east of the Jordan.! 

4. Palestine Exploration Fund.—As a result of the interest 
engendered by the work of Robinson, Lynch, and others, the 
Palestine Exploration Fund was organized in London in 1865. By 
this act a permanent body was created to foster continuously the 
exploration of the Holy Land, and to rescue the work from the fitful 
activities of individual enterprise. Such enterprise could supple- 
ment the work of the Fund, but could no longer hope to compete 
with it. 

Within six months from the organization of the Palestine Explora- 
tion Fund its first expedition was sent out. This was led by Capt., 
now Gen. Sir Charles Warren, who had just completed a survey of 
Jerusalem as part of a plan for bringing water into the city. The 
chief object of this expedition, which was in the field from December, 
1865, to May, 1866, was to indicate spots for future excavation. 
It made a series of sketch maps of the country on the scale of one 
inch to the mile, studied some synagogues in Galilee noted by Rob- 
inson, but not fully described by him, and laid bare on Mount 
Gerizim the remains of a church built on a rough platform which 
may once have supported the Samaritan temple. 

(1) Warren’s Excavations at Jerusalem.—A second expedition 
under Lieut.-Col., now Sir Charles Warren, made considerable 
excavations on the temple-hill at Jerusalem. He sank a remark- 
able series of shafts to the bottom of the walls enclosing the temple 
area, and proved that in places these walls rest on foundations from 
80 to 125 feet below the present surface. He laid bare solid 
masonry, which bore what are apparently Phoenician quarry-marks 
and which he believed to go back to the time of Solomon. On 
the west side of the temple enclosure he found 80 feet below the 
present surface the ruins of a bridge, which Robinson had conjec- 
tured crossed the Tyropceon Valley from the temple enclosure at 
this point from an arch, the base of which is still visible outside of 
the temple wall.2, Among many other discoveries made by Warren 
were a part of the ancient city wall south of the temple area and an 
underground passage leading up from the ancient spring of Gihon, 


1See his East of the Jordan, New York, 1883. 

2 Warren’s results were first published in The Recovery of Jerusalem, London, 1870, and more 
fully in Jerusalem, London, 1889, one of the Memoirs of the Palestine Exploration Fund. The 
aot mentioned is called ‘“Robinson’s Arch,” because its significance was first perceived by 

obinson, 


94 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


which was probably the “‘gutter” (R. V., “‘watercourse’’) of 2 Sam. 
Sipae 
(2) The Survey of Palestine.—After this the Palestine Explora- 
tion Fund undertook a survey of Palestine, the object of which was 
to make a complete and authoritative map of the country on the 
scale of one inch to a mile, and also a description of all archzological 
remains of antiquity which were above ground. The work was 
undertaken in 1871 and the survey of western Palestine was com- 
pleted in 1878. Owing to an outbreak of cholera, the work was 
interrupted from 1874 to 1877. Among those who took part in it 
were Capt. C. R. Conder (now Lieut.-Col.), who was in charge of 
the work from 1872 to 1874, and Capt. Kitchener (now Lord 
Kitchener). The great map was published in 1880, and covers an 
area of 6,000 square miles, from the Mediterranean to the Jordan 
and from the Egyptian desert to a point near Tyre. The comple- 
tion of this map was a monumental accomplishment, and must form 
the basis for all similar work. The archeological remains noted on 
the map are described in three volumes of Memoirs, also published 
by the Exploration Fund. 
In 1881 Capt. Conder was sent out to make a similar survey of 
the country east of the Jordan. He endeavored to work under the 
old permit from the Turkish government, but to this the Turks 
objected. After working for ten weeks, during which he surveyed 
about 500 square miles of territory, he was compelled to desist. 
The results of his work, however, fill a stout volume entitled 
The Survey of Eastern Palestine, London, 1889. The work under- 
taken by Conder has since been carried on by other agencies. Dr. 
Gottlieb Schumacher, an engineer residing at Haifa, who was em- 
ployed in surveying the railway to Mecca, has published authori- 
tative volumes on the region to the east of the Sea of Galilee. On 
a larger scale is the work of Briinnow and Domaszewsky on the 
Roman province of Arabia,? a work which includes ancient Edom 
as far as Petra. The last-mentioned remarkable city has been 
described also in two excellent volumes by Gustaf H. Dalman, 
Director of the German Evangelical Institute in Jerusalem.* 
In 1873-1874 the Palestine Exploration Fund entrusted an arche- 
ological mission of a general nature to the French scholar, Clermont- 


1 Across the Jordan, London, 1886; Jaulan, London, 1886, and Abila, Pella, and Northern Aijlun, 
London, 1889, 

2 Die Provincia Arabia, Strassburg, 1904-1909 (3 volumes). 

5 Petra, Leipzig, 1908, and Neu-Petra Forschung, Leipzig, 1912. 


PALESTINE AND ITS EXPLORATION 95 


Ganneau, who several years before had been French Consul at 
Jerusalem. Clermont-Ganneau was embarrassed by the failure of 
the Turkish government to grant him a firman, but made numerous 
archeological discoveries in the country between Jaffa and Jeru- 
salem. ‘These were published by the Fund in two large volumes,} 
although they did not appear until 1896 and 1899, respectively. 

In the winter of 1883-1884, a complete geological survey was 

made of the valley of the Dead Sea and the region to the south 
(Wady el-Arabah) by Prof. Edward Hull, who afterward published 
a volume on the subject. Hull was accompanied by Major 
Kitchener, who made a complete triangulation of the district lying 
between Mount Sinai and the Wady el-Arabah. 
_ (3) Exploration of Lachish—In 1890 the Exploration Fund 
entered upon a new phase of work or, rather, resumed one that had 
been interrupted for twenty years,—that of excavation. The 
services of Prof. Petrie, the Egyptian explorer, were secured and 
the attempt to wrest from the soil of Palestine some of the buried 
secrets of the past was renewed. The site chosen was Tell el-Hesy, 
where stood in ancient times the city of Lachish (Josh. 10:3; 
2 Kings 14:19; 18:14, etc.). This mound rose about 120 feet 
above the bed of an intermittent stream. About 60 feet of this 
height consisted of accumulated débris of the ancient city. The 
water in the course of centuries had so exposed some of the pot- 
sherds that Petrie was confident before he began digging that rich 
discoveries awaited him. He worked here only about six weeks, 
running trenches into different parts of the mound, but he found 
and classified such a variety of pottery that he felt confident that he 
had unearthed a city which had been occupied from a time anterior 
to the Hebrew conquest of Canaan down to about 350 B. c.® 

In 1892 the work was continued under the direction of Dr. 
Frederick J. Bliss, who cut away a considerable section from the 
northeast corner of the mound, and found the stratified remains 
of eight different cities, one above the other. In the third 
of these cities from the bottom a cuneiform tablet was found, 
which mentions one of the men who figure in the letters found at 
Tell el-Amarna in Egypt. This tablet would indicate that this 
third city was flourishing during the period 1400-1350 B. c. 


1 Archeological Researches in Palestine, London, 1896-1899. 
2 Geology of Palestine and Arabia Petrea, London, 1886, 

8 See Petrie, Tell el-Hesy (Lachish), London, 1891. 

4See his Mound of Many Cities, London, 1894. 


96 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


The two cities below this must, accordingly, belong to an earlier 
period. Bliss supposed that the first city was built about 1700 B. c. 
Above the remains of the third city was a bed of ashes of some 
thickness, which shows, in Petrie’s opinion, that after the destruc- 
tion of this city the mound was used for a period of perhaps fifty 
years as a place for burning alkali. Near the top of the débris of 
the fourth city a glazed seal was found similar to those made in 
Egypt in the time of the twenty-second dynasty (945-745 B. c.). 
This city, then, belonged to the early part of the kingdom of Judah. 
In the seventh and eighth cities pottery of polished red and black 
types was found. This class of pottery is of Greek origin, dating 
from 550-350 B. c. These occupations of the mound must, then, 
be of that period. The fifth and sixth cities would, accordingly, 
fall between 750 and 550 B. c. This excavation thus shows how 
the stratification of the mounds of Palestine reveals the march of 
the peoples across the country; (see Fig. 28). 

(4) Bliss’s Excavation at Jerusalem—From 1894 to 1897 Dr. 
Bliss was engaged in excavations at Jerusalem.! Here he devoted 
his attention to an endeavor to recover the line of the ancient wall 
on the south side of the city. This he did, following it from 
““Maudsley’s Scarp’’? at the northwest corner of the westernmost of 
the two hills on which Jerusalem is situated across the slope to the 
eastward and then across the Tyropceon Valley. This was the wall 
rebuilt by Nehemiah on lines then already old (Neh. 3-6). It was 
destroyed by Titus in the year 70 a. D., and afterward rebuilt by 
the Empress Eudoxia in the fifth century A. D. 

(5) Excavation at Azekah—From 1898 to 1900 Dr. Bliss ex- 
cavated for the Fund at several sites in the Biblical Shephelah,? 
the low hills which formed the border-land between ancient Judea 
and Philistia. The work began at Tell Zakariya, the Biblical 
Azekah, situated above the lower part of the Vale of Elah. Azekah 
was fortified by King Rehoboam (2 Chron. 11 : 5-10). Here an 
important citadel or fortress was uncovered. While the masonry 
of the top part was similar to that of Herodian buildings at Jeru- 
salem, the pottery found about the foundations indicated that the 
beginnings of the structure go back to early Israelitish times. It 
may well be one of Jeroboam’s fortresses. Underneath it were 


1See Bliss, Excavations at Jerusalem, London, 1898. 

? An artificially made precipice on which a fortress once stood. It is named from an English- 
man, Maudsley, who first perceived its true nature. 

3 Bliss and Macalister, Excavations in Palestine during the Years 1898-1900, London, 1902. 


PALESTINE AND ITS EXPLORATION 97 


remains from late pre-Israelitish times. It appears that the hill 
was occupied as the site of a city only shortly before the Hebrew 
conquest. ‘The fortress was not, however, built at the time of this 
earliest occupation. 

(6) At Tell es-Safi (Gath?)—Next the excavation was trans- 
ferred to Tell es-Safi, which was situated on the south side of the 
ancient Vale of Elah at the point where it sweeps into the Philistine 
plain, and which was thought to be the site of the Biblical Gath 
(Josh. 11:22; 1 Sam. 5:8; 17:4; 2 Kings 12:17). Here in 1144 
A. D. the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem established by the Crusaders 
built a fortress, which they called Blanche-Garde, as an outpost 
against Ashkelon. It was hoped that the excavation of Dr. Bliss 
would determine whether or not this was really the site of Gath, but 
owing to the occupation of the tell by a Mohammedan cemetery 
and a wely, or sacred building, this was not possible. The outline 
of the city walls was, however, traced, the foundations of Blanche- 
Garde examined, and here and there trenches were sunk to the 
rock. These trenches revealed in the various strata pottery 
and objects, first, of the the period of the Crusaders; secondly, 
of the Seleucid period (312-65 B.c.); thirdly, of the Jewish period, 
700-350 3B. c., and two pre-Israelite strata. The mound had, then, 
been occupied from about 1700 B. c. to the Seleucid times, and 
again in the period of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. 

The most interesting discovery at Tell es-Safi was that of an old 
pre-Israelitish high place, which contained three pillars such as are 
denounced in Deuteronomy. (See Deut. 7:5; 12:3, etc.) At 
the time of this discovery no similar discovery had been made. 
The foundations of this high place were near the bottom of the last 
pre-Israelite stratum, so that it was clearly constructed by the 
Amorites, or Canaanites, or whoever occupied this city before the 
Hebrews arrived. 

(7) Tell el-Judeideh—The excavations next moved to Tell el- 
Judeideh, a mound some distance to the south of Tell Zakariya. 
Here they traced the outlines of the city wall, found the remains 
of a Roman villa, and sunk a number of shafts to the rock. From 
the pottery found in these shafts they inferred that the mound had 
been occupied in the earliest period, but deserted for a consider- 
able time before the Hebrew conquest. It was then reoccupied in 
the latter part of the Judean monarchy, and was finally fortified 
in the Seleucid or Roman period. It seems to have been deserted 


‘98 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


soon after the Roman period. It isnot known what was the ancient 
name of the city that stood there. 

(8) At Marash (Moresheth-Gath).—The last mound excavated in 
this region was Tell Sandahanna, situated a mile to the south of 
Beit Jibrin. The mound takes its name from a church of St. Anne, 
the ruins of which may still be seen near by. It occupies the site 
of the city of Marissa of the Seleucid period, and of the older 
Jewish Marash. It is probably the site of Moresheth-Gath, the 
home of the prophet Micah. (See Micah 1:14.) Here con- 
siderable portions of the Seleucid stratum of the mound were 
excavated, and a smaller portion of the Jewish stratum. The 


Jewish stratum rested directly on the rock; the site seems, there- 


fore, not to have been inhabited in pre-Israelite times. 

(9) Gezer—The next undertaking of the Palestine Exploration 
Fund was the excavation of Gezer. This work was entrusted to the 
direction of R. A. Stewart Macalister, who had been Dr. Bliss’s 
assistant from 1898 to 1900 and who is now Professor of Celtic in 
the University of Dublin. Work was begun on Tell el-Jazar, 
about six miles southeast of the town of Ramleh, which Clermont 
Ganneau! had, in June, 1902, identified as the site of Gezer. 
(Josh. 10:33; Judges 1:27; 2 Sam. 5:25.) It continued, with 
such interruptions as winter weather and an outbreak of cholera 
made necessary, until August, 1905. It was renewed in the spring 
of 1907 and carried on until early in 1909. During this time more 
than half of the mound was excavated. No other mound in Pales- 
tine has been so fully explored. Naturally, therefore, Gezer has 
furnished us with more archeological information than any other 
excavation; (see Fig. 30). 

The results of this excavation convinced Mr. Macalister that the 
classification of the strata adopted by the excavators of Lachish 
and the mounds of the Shephelah was capable of improvement. 
He found that Gezer had been occupied at first by a non-Semitic 
people, remains of whose bones indicate that they were about 
5 feet 6 inches high, who lived in caves, and whose implements were 
wholly of stone. He estimated that these people probably occupied 
the site from about 3000 to 2500 8. c. About 2500 B. c. a Semitic 
race, probably Amorite, took possession of the city and occupied it 
to the end of the Hebrew monarchy. 

Four periods could be traced in the Semitic occupation, each 

1 See his Archeological Researches in Palestine, II, p. 251, f. 


F 
4 
by 


PALESTINE AND ITS EXPLORATION 199 


represented by differences in walls, implements, and objects used. 
The first Semitic period ended with the fall of the twelfth Egyptian 
dynasty, about 1800 B.c. In this stratum scarabs of the period of 
the Egyptian “middle kingdom” were found. The second Semitic 
stratum continued until about the end of the eighteenth Egyp- 
tian dynasty, about 1350 B. c. The third Semitic stratum lasted 
till the establishment of the Hebrew monarchy, about 1000 s. C3 
the fourth was contemporaneous with the Hebrew kingdoms, 1000- 
586 B. c. The mound was again occupied in the Hellenistic or 
Maccabean period.!' After the Maccabzan turmoils the inhabit- 
ants seem to have deserted the tell. Under the modern village 
of Abu Shusheh, on the southwest slope of the mound, a Roman 
mosaic has been found, but nothing from Roman times was dis- 
covered on the mound itself. There were likewise no remains from 
the period of the Crusaders. 

In the course of this excavation many important discoveries 
were made. Many of these will be mentioned in subsequent chap- 
ters. We need only mention here an old Semitic high place, which 
had its beginnings in the first Semitic stratum before 1800 z. ei 
and was used down to the end of the fourth Semitic or Hebrew 
stratum, about 6008B.c. It began with two “pillars,” but others 
were added as time passed until there were ten in all.2. In the third 
Semitic stratum (7. e., the one preceding the Hebrew occupation) a 
building was found which Mr. Macalister thought might have been 
atemple. In the middle of its largest hall were some stones which 
looked as though they might have supported wooden pillars, which, 
in turn, probably supported the roof. Mr. Macalister thought this 
was a structure similar to that which Samson pulled down at Gaza? 
(Judges 16 : 23-30). 

One of the most important discoveries was a rock-cut tunnel 
leading down through the heart of the rock to a spring in a cave 94 
feet below the surface of the rock and 120 feet below the level 
of the present surface of the ground. This was to enable the 
people of the city to obtain water in time of siege. It was used for 
some 500 years and was apparently closed up about 1300-1200 ns. c. 
Its beginnings go back accordingly to the first Semitic period. A 


1 This is the period called by Petrie and Bliss “Seleucid.” 

2 See Macalister, The Excavation of Gezer, London, 1912, II, 381-403. 
3 Tbhid., 406-408. 

4 Tbid., I, 256-268. 


100 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


palace of the Maccabean time, apparently built by Simon the 
Maccabee, 143-135 B. c., was also discovered.! (Cf. 1 Macc. 14:34.) — 

Various walls were discovered, which at different times encircled 
the city. The most massive of these was apparently constructed 
during the eighteenth Egyptian dynasty, and continued to be the 
city wall down to the Babylonian Exile. At some time after its 
construction towers had been inserted in the wall. These towers 
were shown to be a later insertion by the fact that their stones 
touched the stones of the wall on each side, but were not inter- 
locked with them. Mr. Macalister thinks that these towers may — 
have been inserted by Solomon when he fortified the city (1 Kings 
9 : 15-19). At some later time the weakness of such a tower had 
become apparent, and a bastion had been built around it.2 The 
excavation at Gezer was fruitful in many directions. Other aspects 
of it will be taken up in future chapters in connection with other 
topics. 

(10) Beth-shemesh—The next task undertaken by the Pales- 
tine Exploration Fund was the exploration of Ain Shems, the 
Biblical Beth-shemesh. (See Josh. 15 : 10; 2 Kings 14 : 8-14, etc.) 
Ain Shems, like Gezer, is situated in what was in Biblical times the 
Shephelah. It is near the station of Der Aban on the railway 
from Jaffa to Jerusalem. Excavations were carried on at this 
point in 1911 and 1912 under the direction of Dr. Duncan Mac- 
kenzie, who had had ten years’ experience on the staff of Sir Arthur 
Evans, the explorer of Crete. At the bottom of the mound the 
remains of a very early settlement were discovered. Above this 
the ruins of a once prosperous city, which was for that time large, 
were found. It was surrounded by strong walls and one of its 
rugged gates was discovered on the south. In the upper strata of 
this city imitations of Cretan pottery were found. As it is prob- 
able that the Philistines came from Crete, or were intimately as- 
sociated with people who were under Cretan influence, this pottery 
is doubtless Philistine. The city which was encircled by this wall 
had passed through two periods of history. The original wall was 
built before the domination of Palestine by Egypt. As this domi- 
nation began about 1500 B. c., the earlier fortress of Beth-shemesh 
belongs to that period. The second period belongs in its earlier 


1See Macalister, The Excavation of Gezer, London, 1912, II, 209-223. 

2 [bid., 236-266. 

3See the Annual of the Palestine Exploration Fund, Vols. I and II, for the details here 
given, and for many others. 


PALESTINE AND ITS EXPLORATION 101 


strata to the age of the El-Amarna letters, in which the city is 
called Beth-Ninib. The upper period of it belongs, as has been 
noted, to the Philistine period. 

This city was destroyed by a siege which resulted in the burning 
of the city—a burning which left quite a bed of ashes. Dr. Mac- 
kenzie thought that this was the siege by which the Israelites gained 
possession of Beth-shemesh. The city was occupied by the 
Hebrews apparently until the invasion of Palestine by Sennacherib, 
King of Assyria, in 7018B.c. At all events, it was in the possession 
of Judah in the days of King Amaziah (2 Kings 14 : 8-14). Corre- 
sponding to this, Israelitish pottery was found in the stratum 
above the ashes. Dr. Mackenzie is of the opinion that during 
this Hebrew period the city was without a wall. Apparently after 
the time of Sennacherib the site was abandoned for several cen- 
turies, for next above the Israelitish stratum the remains of a 
monastery of the Byzantine period (325-636 a. p.) were found. 
This monastery apparently was not begun until just at the close 
of the Byzantine period, for it appears that it was not finished at 
the time of the Mohammedan conquest. 

(11) Exploring the Wilderness of Zin—The most recent ser- 
vice of the Palestine Exploration Fund was the sending of two ex- 
plorers, C. Leonard Woolley and T. E. Lawrence, in the winter of 
1913-14, to explore the wilderness to the south of Palestine. The 
results of their work have been published in the Fund’s Annual, 
Vol. III, under the title The Wilderness of Zin. The explorers 
identified a considerable part of the ‘““Darb es-Shur,” or the “way 
of Shur” (Gen. 16:7, etc.). It was the caravan road from Pales- 
tine to Egypt. They also adduce strong evidence against the iden- 
tification of Ain Kades with Kadesh-Barnea (Num. 32 :8, etc.), 
and think that Kossima, which lies nearer to the Egyptian road and 
is surrounded by much more verdure, may have been Kadesh- 
Barnea. The identification of Ain Kades with Kadesh-Barnea was 
made by the late Dr. Henry Clay Trumbull, after a very brief visit 
to the spot, and it has been accepted by many others. 

Between 325 and 636 A. D. extensive settlements and cities of 
considerable size existed in this wilderness. This was one of the 
facts that led Ellsworth Huntington to believe that the rainfall in 
Palestine was much greater at that time. With this view Woolley 
and Lawrence take issue. They say that where the old wells have 
been kept open, the water still rises as high as ever it did. They 


102 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


hold that the cities mentioned were possible because of the great 
energy and skill of the people of that time in sinking wells. 

(12) Ashkelon.—During the season of 1921-1922, Dr. John Gar- 
stang and Mr. W. J. Phythian-Adams, who were respectively 
Director and Assistant in the British School of Archeology in 
Jerusalem, carried on for a time an excavation at Ashkelon. The 
mound was by no means fully explored; the work consisted mainly 
of soundings and trenches to determine the strata and the history 
of the site. From pottery found at different levels it appears that 
Ashkelon was founded about 1800 s. c., that about 1190 B. c. the 
Philistines captured it, that they held it until it passed under the 
sway of Alexander the Great and his successors. During the 
Hellenic and Roman periods the city was adorned by colonnaded 
streets. A large basilica was uncovered which was built by Herod 
the Great. (See Fig. 308.) 

(13) Gaza.—In the autumn of 1922 the same explorers made 
some soundings at Gaza. It appears from their reports that the 
part of the mound through which they sank their trenches proved 
not to be the best for the purpose.2 They cut, however, through 
strata belonging to the Roman, Byzantine, and Arabian periods, 
and at one point sank their trenches to the foundation of a Phil- 
istine wall. One curious feature of the part explored was that 
from a time judged to be about 300 B. c. until the Roman time 
the site seemed to have been but slightly peopled and that by the 
very poor only. This was inferred from the character of the pot- 
sherds found. It is stated by Strabo that Gaza was pulled down 
by Alexander the Great and remained deserted. In Acts 8 : 26 
we read that the angel of the Lord said to Philip: “Arise, and go 
toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem 
unto Gaza: the same is desert.” The word “desert” at this point 


has caused much difficulty. There is no part of the road from © 


Jerusalem to Gaza which can be called “desert,” but if Gaza it- 
self was “desert” at the time, as this excavation indicates, all is 
clear. From other ancient writers, however, it appears that there 
was a city of Gaza during the time these explorers think it deserted, 
but probably it did not cover the whole mound. 

(14) Tell J emmeh.—During the month of October, 1922, the same 
gentlemen examined the pottery on the surface and edges of the 

1 See Quarterly Statement of the. Palestine Exploration Fund, Oct., 1921, 162-169; July, 1922, 


112-117; April, 1923, 60-78; Jan., 1924, 24-35, 
2 Ibid., Jan., 1923, 18-36, 


ee a ee ye ee 


PALESTINE AND ITS EXPLORATION 103 


mound of Tell Jemmeh,! eight miles southwest of Gaza, and sank 
a trial trench. Before their trench reached the bottom, however, 
their work was interrupted by a clash between some salt smugglers 
and soldiery. The examination revealed, nevertheless, that the 
mound had been the site of a city which was founded about 1800 
B. C. and flourished until Roman times. Four distinct strata were 
present in it; the lowest represents an occupation from about 1800- 
1400 B. c.; the second, from about 1400 to the coming of the Phil- 
istians; the third, the Philistine occupation; the fourth, the Greek 
period. Mr. Phythian-Adams is of the opinion that this tell is 
the site of the Biblical Gerar; (see Gen. 10:10; 20:1, 2; and 
26:1, 6, 17, 20, 26). There is little near the site to support a 
city or to give excuse for the existence of one. It is, however, 
near the caravan route to Egypt over which through many cen- 
turies the trade of the world passed. The suggestion of Phythian- 
Adams that the city was founded and maintained to exact toll 
from passing traffic, and so to gain a living easily, has much to 
commend it.! 

(15) Jerusalem.—During the past winter (1923-1924), Professor 
R. A. Stewart Macalister, the excavator of Gezer, has been ex- 
ploring on the northern part of Ophel, the site of the “city of 
David.” The results are not yet published, but from private 
letters from Dr. Macalister? and Dr. Albright it is possible to give 
an outline of the most important discoveries. On the east a por- 
tion of the ancient city wall was uncovered which connected up 
with the wall further north uncovered years ago by Guthe. At 
the northeast corner of what was the Jebusite city, and later “the 
city of David,” a rock-scarp was uncovered on which an imposing 
city wall had been built. This wall had been violently thrown 
down or ‘‘breached”’; at the front of it the breach had been filled 
up with a long, straight wall, and above the breach a strong tower 
had later been erected. Dr. Macalister identifies this “breach” 
with the “breach of David” mentioned in 1 Kings 11 : 27, and the 
tower with “Millo,” mentioned in the same passage and in 2 Sam. 
5:9. The potsherds found about these stones confirmed the age 
assigned to these structures. A view of this “breach” and tower 
is shown, through the courtesy of the Palestine Exploration Fund, 
in Fig. 310. Above the north wall of this tower a house of the 
Byzantine period had been erected. 


1 See Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund, July, 1923, 137-146. 
2 Tbid., Jan., 1924, pp. 9-24. 


104 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


The most surprising discovery was, however, that of a second 
underground shaft, or staircase, leading from the ancient city 
down to the Virgin’s Fountain, the ancient Gihon. The pottery 
found in this shaft proves it to be much older than the one dis- 
covered by Warren. It appears to have belonged to the period 
between 2000 and 3000 B. c., and may be contemporaneous with 
the occupation of the caves around the Fountain discovered by 
Parker.!. An ancient rock-cut sanctuary was also found. 

5. The German Palestine Society—While the work of the 
Palestine Exploration Fund, which has been outlined in detail, was — 
going on, other countries were aroused to similar activities. In 
1877 a similar Society, the Deutscher Paliastina-Verein, was organ- 
ized to foster the collection of information about the land of the 
Bible. Accurate scientific research in all branches of knowledge 
relating to Palestine was contemplated, and the co-operation of 
travelers and of the German colonies in Palestine was invited. In 
1878 this Society began the publication of a journal? which has 
become a repository of information about the Holy Land. 

(1) Guthe’s Excavation at Jerusalem.—In 1880 Prof. Guthe ex- 
cavated at various points on Ophel at Jerusalem, and followed the 
line of the ancient wall along the east side of the city of David.’ 

(2) Megiddo.—In 1903 this German Society undertook the ex- 
cavation of Tell el-Mutesellim, the site of the Biblical Megiddo* 
(Josh. 12 : 21; 2 Kings 23 : 29, etc.). This work was entrusted to 
the direction of Dr. Gottlieb Schumacher, of Haifa. Work was 
begun on the 7th of February, 1903, and continued at intervals 
until the 30th of November, 1905. In the lowest stratum of the 
mound Dr. Schumacher found traces of a settlement the houses of 
which were constructed of mud-bricks. Over the ruins of these a 
second series of houses had been built of stone. In the same 
stratum some tombs were found containing skeletons, some pottery 
of early forms, a bronze knife, and some scarabs set in gold. The 
walls of the city were in part built of brick. The settlements rep- 
resented by this stratum antedated 2000 B. c. 

In the next stratum a large structure, probably a palace, was 
found, which had been occupied through the periods represented 
by the stratum in which its foundations were laid and the stratum 


1 See below, p. 111. 

2 Zeitschrift des deutschen Paldstina-Vereins. 

3 See Zeitschrift. des deutschen Paldstina-Vereins, V, pp. 7-204. 

* See Schumacher und Steuernagel, Tel el-Muteselim, Leipzig, 1908. 


PALESTINE AND ITS EXPLORATION 105 


next above it. The building was of stone and was large. In one 
part of it was a “pillar” apparently used for worship. Various 
types of pottery, knives of flint and bronze, many stone household 
utensils, an Astarte figure, and some scarabs of the period of the 
twelfth Egyptian dynasty were found. This stratum, then, be- 
longed to the period 2000-1800 B. c. 

Next above this stratum was one in which types of painted pot- 
tery similar to that of the Philistines came to light. In the fifth 
stratum from the bottom a palace of the Hebrew period was dis- 
covered. In this palace a seal was found bearing a lion and the 
inscription “‘belonging to Shema, the servant of Jeroboam.” It is 
impossible to tell whether the Jeroboam who was Shema’s master 
was Jeroboam I or Jeroboam II. In this same stratum a temple 
was found containing three “‘pillars’’; (see Fig. 27). 

In another part of the mound in a sixth stratum, which seemed 
to be late Hebrew, three “pillars” were found in an open space 
near the south gate, a stone religious emblem, and a decorated 
incense-burner. Elsewhere this sixth stratum yielded a black- 
smith’s shop. In a seventh stratum, just under the soil, re- 
mains of the Greek period were found, among which was an 
Athenian coin. This was the last occupation of the tell, and was 
pre-Christian. At the beginning of the Roman period the town 
was moved from the high land of the mound down nearer the 
water supply. On the slope of the hill a native-rock altar was 
found which had been used in prehistoric times. 

(3) Taanach.—In 1899 Prof. Ernst Sellin, of Vienna, visited 
Palestine and became so deeply interested in its exploration that 
he induced several Austrian scientific bodies and individuals to 
contribute a fund for the purpose. The result was an excavation of 
Tell Taanek, the Biblical Taanach (Josh. 12 : 21; Judges 5 : 19), 
conducted by Sellin in 1902 and 1903. Sellin did not excavate 
the mound in a systematic way and his results are not very clearly 
presented in his book.! He traced in several places four strata 
in the tell. An early stratum had its beginnings, he thought, 
as early as 2500 B. c. This stratum represented probably an 
occupation of more than a thousand years. In its later parts 
the remains of a large palace were found, and in a cave underneath 
it four cuneiform tablets, written in the script of the El-Amarna 
period. Originally there were more tablets in the archive, but it 

1 Sellin, Tel Taanek, Wien, 1904. 


106 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


had been rifled in ancient times. Above this was a stratum in which 
pottery of the Cypriote and Philistine type was found. Next above 
this was a Hebrew stratum, which seems to have lasted, judging by 
objects found in it, down to the time of Psammetik I of Egypt, 
663-609 B. c. In this stratum the remains of a high place with its 
“pillars” were found, as well as a terra-cotta incense-altar of wonder- 
ful construction. Above this there were in places a few remains 
from the Seleucid period, including some pottery, and at the 
top of the mound some remains of an Arabic settlement. This 
last seems to have been established here about the time of the 
Crusaders. Sellin thinks Taanach was destroyed by the Scythian 
invasion, about 625 B. c., that in the Seleucid period the main 
settlement here was not on the mound, and that it was then unoc- 
cupied until the time of the Crusaders. 

(4) Capernaum.—The Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft, which was 
carrying on excavations in Egypt, Babylonia, and Assyria, under- 
took the investigation of the remains of ancient synagogues in 
Galilee and the Jaulan. Among these they excavated the ruins of 
the synagogue at Tell Hum on the Sea of Galilee,! the probable 
site of Capernaum. Here they found the remains of a once beau- 
tiful synagogue which was probably built in the fourth century A. D. 
Beneath it is the floor of a still older building. This last is probably 
the synagogue in which so many of the incidents of the ministry 
of Christ in Capernaum took place, the one built by a Roman 
centurion. (See Luke 7:5 and Fig. 32.) 

(S) Jericho.—This same Society undertook, in the years 1907— 
1909, the excavation of Jericho; (see Fig. 29). The work was 
entrusted to the direction of Prof. Sellin, of Vienna. The 
digging occupied about three weeks in the spring of 1907, and 
about three months of the early part of each of the years 1908 and 
1909.2, At the bottom of the mound traces of a prehistoric occupa- 
tion of the site were uncovered, but as these were under the founda- 
tions of a Canaanitish fortress, which were not demolished, nothing 
further was ascertained about them. Above this prehistoric city 
were the remains of an Amorite or Canaanite city. A jar handle 
found in the lower half of this Canaanite stratum was stamped with 
a scarab of the time of the twelfth Egyptian dynasty, which indi- 
cates that this occupation goes back to about 2000 B.c. The 


1 See Mitteilungen der deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft, No. 29, Berlin, 1905, p. 14, f. 
2 See Sellin und Watzinger, Jericho, Leipzig, 1913. 


a a ie 


PALESTINE AND ITS EXPLORATION 107 


walls of this early city were traced on all sides of the tell except 
the east. On this side, where the Ain es-Sultan is (otherwise called 
Elisha’s Fountain, from the incident of 2 Kings 2 : 19-22), the 
wall had entirely disappeared. This early city was small. The 
whole of it could have been put into the Colosseum at Rome. All 
early Palestinian cities were, however, small. In the city was a 
citadel with a double wall. Each wall represented a different pe- 
riod of history. Both were built of brick, as were the houses of the 
time. The outer wall was between four and five feet thick and 
appeared to be the older; the inner one was about ten feet thick. 
They were joined here and there by transverse walls; (see Fig. 37). 
The city had been burned apparently about 1300-1200 B. c., per- 
haps at the time of the Hebrew conquest. 

Above the ruins of this pre-Israelitish city were the remains of 
the Hebrew town. The earliest of these remains seems to date 
from the ninth century B.c.; (see 1 Kings 16 : 34), as it was 
rebuilt in the days of Ahab; (see Fig. 34). The Israelites, in 
Sellin’s judgment, made the city considerably larger than it 
had been in the earlier time. A wall, which he believed to be 
the wall of the Hebrew period, was found on all sides except the 
east, considerably outside the older wall. Pére Vincent, of the 
French Ecole Biblique at Jerusalem, believes this wall to have been 
built in the Canaanite period also, but his reasons do not seem con- 
vincing. On the eastern edge of the Israelitish stratum the re- 
mains of a large stone building were found. Sellin thinks this 
may be the palace and fortress built by Hiel in the time of Ahab 
(1 Kings 16 : 34). This Israelitish city seems to have flourished 
only about two hundred years. It was probably destroyed in the 
time of Sennacherib, about 700 B. c. Sellin thought he found 
traces of another rebuilding which must soon have followed the 
destruction, but this Jericho was also destroyed by Nebuchadrezzar 
in 586 B.c. At some time after the Babylonian Exile the city was 
rebuilt and flourished until destroyed by Vespasian in 70 A. D. 
It was rebuilt after 325 A. p. and continued until destroyed by the 
invasion of the Persian King Chosroes IJ, in 614 A. p. Some slight 
settlements have existed on the mound in Moslem times, but the 
Jericho of today is more than a mile distant. 

(6) Balata.—In the winter of 1913-1914 an excavation was made 
by Professor Sellin at Balata, near Shechem. The city gate of 
ancient Shechem was uncovered, with a portion of the Amorite 


108 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


city wall, which was thick and oblique. The gateway was triple 
and is said to be the longest discovered in Palestine. This gate 
was on the west of the city. The foundations of houses of the 
early Hebrew period were also found. Near the tell an Egyptian 
sarcophagus was found. The full account of the work has not 
been published.1 

6. The American School at Jerusalem.—In the year 1900 the 
American School of Oriental Research in Palestine was opened at 
Jerusalem under the egis of the Archeological Institute of America. 
It is one of the purposes of this school, when its funds will permit, 
to carry on excavations as well as explorations. Hitherto it has not 
had money sufficient to enable it to undertake extensive excavations. 
In addition to the investigation of many matters not strictly arche- 
ological, the School has conducted a number of minor explorations. 
When the present writer was Director, 1902-1903, he cleared the 
so-called Tomb of the Judges and found the ruins of a caravansary 
of the Crusading period near the Damascus Gate. Under L. B. 
Paton, 1903-1904, an excavation was made on the supposed line of 
the “Third Wall” of Jerusalem. Under Nathaniel Schmidt, 1904— 
1905, the Dead Sea was explored and some discoveries made in the 
Valley of the Arnon and the Wady Suweil.2? Under D. G. Lyon, 
1906-1907, some pre-Israelitish pottery was recovered from tombs 
of Samieh east of Et-Taiyibeh.? Under W. J. Moulton, 1912-1913, 
a painted Christian tomb of the Byzantine period was explored at 
Beit Jibrin. This has been described and some of its paintings re- 
produced in the Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Re- 
search, Vols. II and III, 1923. 

The work of the School was interrupted by the war, but since 
the restoration of peace its work of research has been resumed. 
W. H. Worrell, Director of the School in 1919-1920, and C. C. 
McCowan, Fellow in 1920-1921, have published important inves- 
tigations of various aspects of the religion of the country. Dr. W. 
F. Albright, the present Director, has done considerable work on 
the problem of the identification of ancient sites,> and has also 


1 A brief statement concerning it by Prof. George L. Robinson will be found in the American 
Journal of Archeology, Vol. XXI, 1917, p. 84. 

2 See Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. XXII, Boston, 1903, pp. 164-182; XXIV, 196-220; 
XXV, 82-95. 

3 See Harvard Theological Review, Cambridge, Mass., I, 1908, p. 92. 

: eet ae in the Annual referred to above, and in the Bulletin, see p. 109, n. 1. 


PALESTINE AND ITS EXPLORATION 109 


made an important excavation at Tell el-Ful,! the Gibeah of Saul, 
which has illustrated and confirmed the text of the Bible. (Fig. 309.) 

At the bottom of the mound he found a fortress built of massive 
stone blocks rudely shaped, in which late Canaanite and early 
Hebrew pottery was found. This fortress was destroyed by fire 
and was covered by a layer of ashes. Dr. Albright connects this 
destruction with the burning of Gibeah in the war between Ben- 
jamin and Israel mentioned in Judges 20: 40. Just above it were 
the remains of a second fortress, the most elaborate structure found 
in the mound. Its outer wall was about six feet thick and defended 
by a glacis or sloping base. It contained a massive stone staircase. 
This structure appears to belong to the time of King Saul. On this 
was a third and somewhat smaller fortress, characterized by a 
series of stone piers usual during the Jewish monarchy. This may 
represent the structure of King Asa mentioned in 1 Kings 15 : 22. 
After a short siege this structure also perished in a conflagration. 
This may have taken place in the Syro-Ephraimitish war of 735 
B. C. (see Isa. 7). After the lapse of a considerable period of time 
another fortress was built on the ruins of all these. The pottery 
found in this showed that it belonged to the Maccabzan time. 

During February and March of the present year (1924), a joint 
expedition of the School and of Xenia Theological Seminary, con- 
ducted by Dr. Albright and President Kyle of Xenia, explored the 
Jordan Valley to the south of the Dead Sea, in search of the “cities 
of the plain,” Sodom, Gomorrah, Zoar, and the others. They found 
the site of the Zoar of the Byzantine and Arabic periods, but con- 
cluded that the Dead Sea covered the locality of earlier Zoar, as 
well as of Sodom and Gomorrah. Their most important discovery 
should be described in Dr. Albright’s own words: 

“The biggest find was that of a unique sanctuary and fortress 
of the end of the early bronze and beginning of the middle bronze 
age, together with a large station of open-air hearths and in- 
closures. We planned it and brought back thousands of sherds, 
vases, flint artifacts, and a quantity of bones and skulls for 
anthropometric investigation. ‘This station at Bab ed-Dra was 
apparently a sanctuary in use from about 2800 to 1800 B. c. and 
is by far the most important one known in Palestine. Among 
other things we found six prostrate menhirs with the broken pieces 


1 Described in part in various numbers of the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental 
Research and fully in their Annual, Vol. IV, 1924. 


110 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


of a seventh, all of stone, which must have been dragged for 
miles. 

“We also studied the early Moabite shrine at Ader, planned it 
and discovered a previously unknown temple, with masseboth, 
table of offerings, and a very interesting ground plan.” 

7. Samaria.—Although the American School at Jerusalem has 
not yet been able to undertake extensive excavations, through the 
generosity of Mr. Jacob Schiff, of New York, Harvard University 
was able to excavate at Sebastiyeh, the site of ancient Samaria, 
during parts of three seasons—1908, 1909, and 1910. During the - 
first season the work was under the direction of Prof. D. G. Lyon; 
during 1909 and 1910, under the direction of Prof. G. A. Reisner, 
who has had large experience in such work in Egypt, and who, in 
addition to many archzological triumphs there, has solved the riddle 
of the Sphinx. At Samaria‘ a large palace was found built upon the 
native rock. This is believed to be the remains of the palace of 
Omri (1 Kings 16:24). Above this were the ruins of a larger 
palace, the wall of which was faced with white marble. This is 
believed to have been the palace of Ahab, who is said to have built 
an “ivory house” (1 Kings 22 : 39). In a building on a level with 
this palace a considerable number of inscribed potsherds were 
found. They were receipts for wine and oil stored there. Above 
the ruins of the palace of Ahab, the remains of another, which is 
supposed to have been built by Jeroboam II, were found. At 
the western edge of the hill the old city gate was uncovered. 
It had been rebuilt at different times. The foundations were 
clearly laid in the Israelitish period. On these now rests a super- 
structure of Herodian workmanship. Above the ruins of the 
Hebrew city were the remains of a city built by the Assyrians. 
(See 2 Kings 17: 24-34.) This was inferred by the character 
of the building materials employed, and by the fragment of a 
clay tablet found there. Still above this were remains of a city 
of the Seleucid time—the city destroyed by John Hyrcanus? in 
109 B. c. Still above this were remains of the temple built by 
Herod the Great, when he rebuilt Samaria and named it Sebaste, 
the Greek for Augusta, in honor of the Emperor Augustus. This 
temple had been repaired in the third century A. D. 

1See Harvard Excavations at Samaria, 1908-1910, by G. A. Reisner, Clarence S. Fisher, and 


D. G. Lyon, Cambridge, 1924, passim. 
2 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, xiii, 10, 2 and 3; Wars of the Jéws, 1, 2s 


PALESTINE AND ITS EXPLORATION 111 


8. Parker’s Excavations at Jerusalem.—In the years 1909, 1910, 
and 1911 an English expedition under Capt., the Hon. Montague 
Parker, a retired officer of the British army, made extensive explora- 
tions upon Ophel, the slope of the eastern hill south of the present 
city walls at Jerusalem. Parker was not an archeologist and the 
motive for the exploration is not yet disclosed. The party is said 
to have been abundantly supplied with money, and to have come to 
Palestine in a private yacht, which was anchored off Jaffa while 
they were at work. In 1911 the hostility of the Moslems became 
so excited by the rumor that they had attempted to excavate under 
the Mosque of Omar that the expedition came to an abrupt close, 
and the explorers escaped on their yacht. Through the descrip- 
tions of two residents of Jerusalem, Prof. Hughes Vincent! and Dr. 
E. W. G. Masterman,? we have some knowledge of the value of 
Parker’s work. He cleared the silt out of the Siloam tunnel so as 
to reveal its real depth, which seems to have been between five and 
six feet. It had been so silted up that it appeared to be only about 
half that depth. He also explored more fully the caves about Ain 
Sitti Miriam (the Biblical Gihon, 1 Kings 1 : 33), which had been 
partially explored by Sir Charles Warren, so that the nature and 
probable use of these are now known much better. More will be 
said of this in a future chapter. 

9. A Street in Herodian Jerusalem.—Within the last few years 
the Assumptionist Fathers have been excavating on a tract of land 
purchased by them on the eastern slope of the western hill to the 
south of the present city wall. They believe that they have dis- 
covered the house of Caiaphas, to which Christ was led in the course 
of his trial (Matt. 26 : 57; John 18 : 24). Possibly they have found 
the house which, after the time of Constantine, was pointed out 
to Christian pilgrims as that of Caiaphas. However this may be, 
they have unearthed several streets of Roman and Jewish Jerusa- 
lem, and are keeping them uncovered. These streets, like the 
ruins of Pompeii, disclose pavements and house-foundations that 
may go back to the time of Christ. Here, possibly, one may 
look upon pavements which his feet actually trod 

10. The Jewish Excavation on Ophel.—During the winter of 
1913-1914 an excavation was conducted by Capt. Raymond Weill 


1 Révue biblique, 1912 (Paris), pp. 86-116. 
2 Biblical World, Vol. XXXIX, Chicago, 1912, pp. 295-306. 
’ See Germer-Durand in Révue biblique, 1914, pp. 71-94, and Frontispiece. 


112 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


on the southern point of Mount Ophel at Jerusalem. The ex- 
pense of the expedition was borne by Baron Edmond de Roths- 
child. Captain Weill was influenced to choose for exploration the 
southern part of the hill by the fact that some years before Cler- 
mont-Ganneau, a distinguished French archeologist, had conjec- 
tured that the great bend in the Siloam Tunnel (see map, Plate 121) 
was made to avoid disturbing the tombs of the Judean kings. It was 
hoped, therefore, that the tombs of David and of later kings might 
be found. While this hope was not realized, several important dis- 
coveries were made. 

At the lowest level some unrifled tombs of the Canaanite period 
were opened, from which samples of the pottery of that time were 
obtained. Large excavations in the rock which may have once 
been tombs of the period of the Jewish kingdom were also found, 
but they had been cleared out in ancient times and appropriated 
to other purposes; some of them had been converted into cisterns. 
Near the southeastern corner of the hill a series of walls and slop- 
ing structures were found. These were partly from early and partly 
from later time, on the slope above one another. The hill was vul- 
nerable at this point and many efforts had been made to strengthen 
its defenses. Evidently it had often been attacked here. Not only 
the wall indicated this, but a long tomb in which were the bones of 
many headless bodies lying in a row. Probably these were the 
bodies of men who had fallen during some attack upon the walls 
centuries ago. Outside the walls were found parts of an aqueduct 
made during the early period of the kingdom of Judah, before the 
one was cut under the hill in the time of Hezekiah. This older one 
had been cut under the edge of the hill and the rock had been re- 
moved through windowlike openings. A part of this farther to 
the north had been discovered by Dr. Schick years before.2 These 
openings could be entered by a besieging army, so that, when this 
channel was in use, the water supply was not well protected, hence 
that constructed by Hezekiah became necessary. 

On the slope on which stood the mass of the fortifications men- 
tioned above were the foundations of a round structure, possibly a 
tower. It is thought that this may be the “tower in Siloam” the 
fall of which is referred to in Luke 13:4. On the crest of the 
southern part of the ridge near some baths of the Roman time 


1See R. Weill, La cité de David, Paris, 1920. 
2 See Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund, 1891, p. 15. 


PALESTINE AND ITS EXPLORATION 113 


the remains of a structure and an inscription were found. The in- 
scription is translated in Part II, Chapter XXIX. From it we 
infer that the structure was a synagogue and guest house, perhaps 
of the “Libertines” or freed men mentioned in Acts 6 : 9. 

The outbreak of the Great War in 1914 prevented the resump- 
tion of Captain Weill’s work until the past winter (1923-1924). 
During the current season, so far as reported, no important dis- 
coveries have been made by him. 

11. Ain Duk.—At Ain Duk, about two miles northwest of the site 
of ancient Jericho, the mosaic floor of an ancient Jewish sanctuary 
or synagogue was accidentally laid bare during the war by the 
bursting of a shell. Worked into the mosaic there was an inscrip- 
tion (see Fig. 303) which reads as follows: 


Honored be the memory of Benjamin, the Patron, son of Joseph; 
honored be the memory of every one who takes stout hold 
Bod gives or, ..... in this holy place, whether gold or silver or any 
valuable. Be made sure (?) their share in this holy place. Amen.’? 


There is nothing connected with the inscription from which one 
can give it a definite date. Clermont-Ganneau, a distinguished 
French scholar, thought the floor was constructed in the fourth or 
fifth century, a. D. Professor Vincent, of the Dominican Ecole 
Biblique in Jerusalem, who visited Ain Duk and examined the 
mosaic, at first thought that it dated from the reign of Herod the 
Great. If this were so, it would be the floor of a synagogue that 
was in existence in the time of Christ. 

In 1921 the Dominican Fathers of the Ecole Biblique in Jeru- 
salem made an examination of the site at the request of the Pales- 
tinian government. As a result of this examination other dis- 
coveries were made which convinced them that the synagogue and 
surrounding buildings were constructed in the third century of our 
era.” 

Ain Duk, where the mosaic was found, is the ancient Dok, where 
Simon, the last of the Maccabees, was slain by his son-in-law 
Ptolemy (1 Macc. 16:11). It was an important town during this 
period. 

The inscription affords interesting proof of the honor in which the 
Jews held men who gave money to their places of worship. It thus 
throws light on the words addressed to Jesus by Jews of Capernaum 


1 See Révue biblique, 1919, pp. 532-559. 
2 Cf. Ibid., 1921, pp. 442, 443. 


114 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


concerning a certain Roman centurion: “He is worthy that thou 
shouldest do this for him; for he loveth our nation, and himself 
built us our synagogue.” (Luke 7 : 4, 5.) 

The inscription accidentally uncovered proved to be one of a 
large cycle of inscriptions in mosaic which adorned the whole of 
the nave of the synagogue. There were also numerous figures 
wrought into the mosaic. Some represented Old Testament 
themes; among these was Daniel in the lion’s den. The signs of 
the zodiac were also represented, numerous plants, fantastic animal 


forms, as well as geometric figures. The whole reveals an unsus- @ 


pected form of Jewish architecture. The synagogue was surrounded 
by numerous houses in which some of those who worshiped in it 
dwelt. 

12. Hammath.—A little to the south of Tiberias on the shore of 
the Sea of Galilee there are some hot springs which mark the site 
of the Hammath of Joshua 19: 35. The name is derived from a 
Hebrew word which means “hot,” and was accordingly given to 
the place because of the springs. In 1921 the Jewish Society for 
the Exploration of Palestine commissioned Dr. Nahum Slousch to 
excavate there. At the beginning of his work he was fortunate 
enough to uncover a synagogue of the same style of architecture 
as that at Tel Hum. The structure was evidently of a fine charac- 
ter, as a number of fragments of white marble ornaments were 
found, among which was a Corinthian capital. One piece of marble 
was adorned with a seven-branched candlestick. This was un- 
doubtedly the famous “synagogue of Hamatha,” celebrated in 
Jewish annals. It was founded by Herod Antipas about 20 A. pD., 
and may well have been visited by Christ during his ministry. 
Evidence was found that the building shared the religious vicissi- 
tudes which swept over the land, and during its later period was 
occupied as a Christian church. This was in the time after Con- 
stantine. 

Dr. Slousch has been continuing his work during the past winter 
(1923-1924), but no important discoveries have been as yet re- 
ported this season. 

13. Beisan, the Beth-shean of Josh. 17:11, 16; Judges 1:27; 1 
Kings 4:12; 1 Chron. 7:29 and the Beth-shan of 1 Sam. 31:10, 12 and 
2 Sam. 21:12, is situated at the point where the great Plain of 
Jezreel descends into the Jordan Valley. It was situated in terri- 
tory that normally belonged to the tribe of Issachar, but the city 


PALESTINE AND ITS EXPLORATION 115 


itself was occupied by a portion of the tribe of Manasseh. During 
the reign of King Saul the Philistines gained possession of it, and 
when they gained possession of King Saul’s body they fastened it 
to the wall of Beth-shan. In the time of King Solomon it is men- 
tioned in describing one of the economic units of his kingdom. 
Later it became a Greek city, as described below (Chapter XIV), 
and one of the cities of the Decapolis. The principal mound at 
Beisan covered the ancient city, while the remains of the Greek 
city are still traceable over a larger area around it. 

The excavation of this site was undertaken in 1921 by the Uni- 
versity Museum of Philadelphia, under the direction of Dr. Clarence 
S. Fisher, and work has been carried on there for three summers. 
As the principal mound was the site of the most ancient city and 
promised therefore to be the most important, work was begun 
there. To completely explore the site will be the work of years.! 
Dr. Fisher has so far undertaken two things: 1. The sinking of a 
trial trench down through the mound to ascertain from the re- 
mains of buildings and the pottery how many strata it contained 
and to what periods they belonged. 2. The clearing of the mound, 
stratum by stratum, from the top. While the trial trench was not 
carried to the rock, which is here buried under a depth of natural 
soil, it revealed pottery of the Arabic, Byzantine, Hellenistic, and 
earlier Hebrew and Semitic periods back to about 20008. c. A later 
sounding brought to light evidence reaching back to 3000 B. c. 
The débris continued below this level, proving the site to have 
been inhabited earlier than was anticipated. How early it was 
occupied has not yet been ascertained. 

At the top of the mound the remains of a city built by the Arabs 
shortly after their conquest in 637 A. D. were uncovered. Below 
this were found the ruins of the Byzantine city, including those of 
a circular Christian church adorned with beautiful columns. Dur- 
ing the second season some lower strata of the mound were reached 
and an Egyptian fortress was cleared. Two pillars were found, 
one bearing an inscription of Seti I (1313-1292 B. c.), the other an 
inscription of Ramses II (1292-1225 s. c.), and a statue of Ramses 
TIT (1198-1167 3. c.). This fortress was later occupied by the 
Philistines and was finally burned, probably by King David, about 
1000 B. c. 

The steles, or stone pillars, of Seti and Ramses bore historical 

1See Dr. Fisher’s reports in the Musewm Journal, March, 1922, and December, 1923. 


116 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


inscriptions, most of the details of which concern the wars of long 
ago. ‘That of Ramses is said, however, to contain the statement 
that in building the city of Raamses in Egypt he employed Semitic 
laborers. This seems a striking confirmation of Ex. 1:11. The 
text of the inscription is not yet published. 

14, Shiloh.—In September, 1922, the Danish scholar, Dr. Aage 
Schmidt, sank about a score of trial pits or shafts through the 
débris at Seilun, the Biblical Shiloh.!_ He found potsherds from the 
Arabic and Greco-Roman periods, and from the early Israelitish 
period about 1200-900 B. c. While no extensive excavation was 
undertaken, this probing of the site confirms the statements con- 
cerning Shiloh which we find in the Scriptures and gives us one 
item of information not contained in the Bible. The potsherds 
reveal no evidence that there was ever a Canaanite settlement at 
Shiloh; the Hebrews appear to have founded the settlement after 
their conquest of Palestine. Here they established the Ark of the 
Covenant, selecting the site apparently because the spot was 
centrally located in the hill country of Ephraim; and the town 
grew up about the temple erected to protect the Ark. Here Eli 
ministered, and Samuel passed his boyhood (1 Sam. 1-3). After 
the Ark was captured by the Philistines (1 Sam. 4), it never re- 
turned, but by gradual steps was transferred to Jerusalem (1 Sam. 
6 and 2 Sam. 6). After its loss, Shiloh seems to have gradually 
been deserted and to have fallen into decay. In the time of Jere- 
miah its temple was a ruin (Jer. 7 : 12-15; 26:6), and the place 
apparentiy deserted. As the potsherds bear witness to no settle- 
ment here from about 900 B. c. till about 300 B. c., the archeological 
soundings confirm the text of the Bible. 

15. Jebeil is the modern name of the Phoenician city of Gebal 
mentioned in Ezekiel 27:9. During the past winter (1923-1924) 
the French have been exploring the royal necropolis. The work 
has been under the charge of M. Montet. It is privately reported 
that tombs have been discovered containing objects from the time 
of the early Egyptian dynasties, which prove a contact of Egypt 
with Phoenicia earlier than any hitherto suspected. Later an 
equally surprising discovery came from some tombs of the period 
of the Egyptian empire. On a sarcophagus of Ramses II an in- 
scription in early Phoenician characters was found. Scholars who 
have seen it say that it probably dates from about 1200 B. c. It 

1See Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 9 (Feb., 1923), p. 10 f, 


PALESTINE AND ITS EXPLORATION unity 


is the oldest Phoenician inscription known—three hundred years 
older than the Moabite Stone. The characters are said to be of 
unexpected shapes. The inscriptions are said to contain the royal 
names Ahiram, the Biblical Hiram (2 Sam. 5: 11; 2 Kings chs. 
5 and 9); also Ethbaal—a name identical with that of the father 
of Jezebel (1 Kings 16 : 31), though borne, of course, by different 
persons at Gebal in this earlier time. 

In the above account only the principal explorations have been 
mentioned. In all parts of Palestine, and especially at Jerusalem, 
important archeological discoveries are frequently made when 
people are digging to lay the foundations of buildings, to construct 
a cistern, or for other purposes. Other important discoveries, as, 
for instance, the rock-cut high place at Petra,! and the painted 
tombs at Beit Jibrin,? have been made by people traveling through 
the land. Many discoveries made in this way are recorded in the 
Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund, the Zeit- 
schrift des deutschen Palistina- Vereins, and the Révue biblique. 
Lack of space forbids the attempt to chronicle these. 

Here, too, should be mentioned the Greco-Roman town at 
Beit Jibrin, examined by Professors Vincent and Savignac in 19224 
at the request of the British Government. 

1First noticed by Professor George L. Robinson and afterward by Professor Samuel Ives 
Curtis. 

2 Discovered in 1902 by Dr. J. P. Peters and Dr. Thiersch ; see their Painted Tombs of M arissa, 
London, 1905, 

3 Reference should also be made to the expedition from Princeton University, referred to on 
p. 122, led by Prof. H. C. Butler, which went out in 1899-1900, in 1904-1905, and in 1909, and 
examined the ruins in the Hauran (or region east of the Sea of Galilee), in the Lebanon Mountains, 
and in that part of Syria to the east of Lebanon. The expedition gathered many inscriptions, 
most of which belong to the Christian period. The results of this exploration are published in 
The Publications of an Archeological Expedition to Syria in 1899-1900, New York, 1904, and 
Publications of the Princeton Archeological Expeditions to Syria in 1904-1905 and 1909, Leyden, 


1908-1914, 
4 Révue biblique, XXXI, 1922, pp. 259-281. 


>, > ee 
Pa 


CHAPTER V 


OUTLINE OF PALESTINE’S ARCHASOLOGICAL HISTORY 


Tue Earty Stone AGE. THE LATE STONE AGE. THE AmoRITES. THE CANAAN- 
ITES. EcypTiAN DomINATION: Thothmes III. Palestine in the El-Amarna Letters. 
Seti I. Ramses II. Merneptah. Ramses III. Tur Puitistines. THE HEBREWS. 
PHILISTINE CIVILIZATION. THe HEBREW KINGDOMS. THE EXILE AND AFTER: The 
Samaritans. Alexander the Great and his successors. "The Maccabees. ‘The As- 
monzans. THE COMING OF Rome: The Herods. ~The destruction of Jerusalem in 
70 A.D. LATER History. 


1. The Early Stone Age.—Palestine appears to have been in- 
habited at a very remote period. Scholars divide the races of pre- 
historic men, who used stone implements, into two classes—Palzo- 
lithic and Neolithic. Paleolithic men did not shape their stone 
implements. If they chanced to find a stone shaped like an axe, 
they used it as such; if they found a long, thin one with a sharp 
edge, they used it for a knife. Neolithic man had learned to shape 
his stone tools. He could make knives for himself out of flint and 
form other tools from stone. The earliest inhabitants of Palestine 
belonged to the paleolithic period. Unshaped stone implements 
have been found in many parts of the country. They have been 
picked up in the maritime plain, in still larger numbers on the ele- 
vated land south of Jerusalem, and again to the south of Amman, 
the Biblical Rabbah Ammon, on the east of the Jordan. The 


Assumptionist Fathers of Notre Dame de France at Jerusalem have __ 


a fine collection of flint implements in their Museum. 

These palzolithic men lived in caves in which they left traces of 
their occupation. Several of these caves in Phoenicia have been 
explored by Pére Zumoffen, of the Catholic University of St. 
Joseph, Beirut.! It has been estimated that these cave-dwellers 
may have been in Palestine as early as 10,000 B. c. 

2. The Late Stone Age.—Of neolithic men in Palestine much 
more is known. This knowledge comes in part from the numerous _ 
cromlechs, menhirs, dolmens, and “gilgals’” which are scattered 


1See R. A. S. Macalister, History of Civilization in Palestine, Cambridge University Press, 1912, 
pp. 10, 11. 


118 


MAP OF Y : 5 J Danfascus 
PALESTINE /£8S8 /6/ ce 


SCALE OF MILES 


10 20 


Waters of 
Merom 


woalef 0 5/ PH hdl P 


©) a Ga lile a’ Bos Ashteroth 
J W =| Karnaim 
° en: eth » J} eet 


m6) Ve Nid 


muk 
~ 


me 
R. 


° Sama ia 


= 
Tp we pyre 


5 
% 


Fwy 


° Dibou 


ely, evant 


My “ 
7 


ayers tipi 


Longitude East 85° 


: ° 
from Greenwich 36° peters, ENGRS.,BOSTON 


PALESTINE’S ARCHAOLOGICAL HISTORY 119 


over eastern Palestine. A cromlech is a heap of stones roughly 
resembling a pyramid;! a menhir is a group of unhewn stones so set 
in the earth as to stand upright like columns;? a dolmen consists of a 
large unhewn stone which rests on two others which separate it 
from the earth;’ and a “gilgal” is a group of menhirs set in a circle.? 
These monuments are the remains of men of the stone age who dwelt 
here before the dawn of history. They were probably erected 
by some of those peoples whom the Hebrews called Rephaim*‘ or 
“shades” —people who, having lived long before, were dead at the 
time of the Hebrew occupation. 

Similar monuments of the stone age have been found in Japan, 
India, Persia, the Caucasus, the Crimea, Bulgaria; also in Tripoli, 
Tunis, Algeria, Morocco, Malta, southern Italy, Sardinia, Corsica, 
the Belearic Isles, Spain, Portugal,® France, the British Isles, Scan- 
dinavia, and the German shores of the Baltic. Some scholars hold 
that all these monuments were made by one race of men, who 
migrated from country to country. As the monuments are not 
found at very great distances from the sea, the migrations are sup- 
posed to have followed the sea coasts.? Others scout the idea of a 
migration over such long distances at such an early epoch of the 
world’s history, and believe that the fashion of making such monu- 
ments was adopted from people to people by imitation. Be this as 
it may, these monuments seem to have been in Egypt and Palestine 
before the Semites and Hamites developed into the Egyptians, 
Amorites, and Hebrews, for they were adopted by them as the 
“pillars” which are so often denounced in the Old Testament, and 
in Egypt were gradually shaped and prolonged into the obelisks. 

Of the men of this stone age the excavations have furnished us 
with some further information. At Gezer the native rock below 
all the cities was found to contain caves,® some natural and some 
artificial, which had formed the dwellings of men of the stone age. 
They, like men today, were lazy. If one found a cave that would 
protect him from heat, cold, and rain, he would occupy it and save 

1See Barton, A Year’s Wandering in Bible Lands, Philadelphia, 1904, p. 143. 

2 See Barton, in the Biblical World, Chicago, 1904, Vol. XXIV, p. 177. 

*See Conder, Survey of Eastern Palestine, I, pp. 125-277, and Mackenzie in the Annual of 
the Palestine Exploration Fund, I, pp. 5-11. 

4See Gen. 14 : 5; 15 : 20. 

§ See H. S. Cowper, The Hill of the Graces, a Record of Investigation among the Trilithons and 
Megalithic Sites of Tripoli, London, 1897,and Brandenburg, Uber Felsarchitektur im Mittelmeergebiet 
in Mitteilungen der Vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft, 1914. 

6 See Archeologia, Second Series XX, London, 1920, pp. 201-232. 


7See the Annals of Archeology and Anthropology, Vol. V, Liverpool, 1913, pp. 112-128, 
8 See Macalister, The Excavation of Gezer, 1, 72-152. 


120 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


himself the trouble of making one. But there were not enough 
caves to go around, so some of the men of ancient Gezer cut caves 
for themselves out of the soft limestone rock. It must have been a 
difficult task with the stone implements at their disposal, but they 
accomplished it, sometimes cutting stairs by which to descend into 
them. One such cave seems to have been used by them asa temple. 
In it were found a quantity of pig bones, which were apparently the 
remains of their sacrifices. If they offered the pig in sacrifice, they 
were certainly not Semitic, for Semites abhorred swine. These 
early men sometimes adorned the sides of their dwellings by scratch- 
ing pictures-on the walls. Several pictures of cattle were found. 
One cow seemed to have knobs on her horns to keep her from goring! 
One drawing represented a stag that was being killed with a bow 
and arrow.’ These early men burned their dead, and one of the 
caves in the eastern end of the hill was used as their crematory. 
Steps in the rock led down to its entrance. The cave itself was 
31 feet long, 24 feet 6 inches wide, and the height varied from 2 to 
5 feet. Near one end a hole had been cut to the upper air to act as 
a flue. Below this the fires that burned their dead had been 
kindled; cinders and charred bones of these far-off men were found 
as grim tokens of their funeral rites. Shortly after these bones 
were found the anatomist, Prof. Alexander Macalister, of Cambridge 
University, father of the excavator, visited the camp at Gezer and 
made a study of the bones. He found that they represented a non- 
Semitic race. The peculiar modifications of the bones caused by 
the squatting so universally practised by Semites were absent. 
The men whose bones these were could not have been more than 
5 feet 6 inches in height, and many of the women must have been 
as short as 5 feet 3 inches. A pottery head found in one of the 
caves, which may be a rude portrait of the type of face séen in 
Gezer in this period, has a sloping forehead, which afforded little 
brain-space, and a prominent lower jaw. These people used flint 
knives, crushed their grain in hollow stones with rounded stones, 
employed a variety of stone implements, and made pottery of a 
rude type, which will be described in a later chapter. 

The city of Gezer in this cave-dwelling period was surrounded 
by a unique wall or rampart.” This consisted of a stone wall about 
6 feet high and 2 feet thick, on the outer side of which was a ram- 


1See Macalister, The Excavation of Gezer, I, 145-152. 
2 Ibid., 236, 


PALESTINE’S ARCHAZOLOGICAL HISTORY 121 


part of packed earth about 6 feet 6 inches at the base and sloping 
toward the top. This bank of earth was protected by a covering of 
small stones about 8 inches in depth. This rampart never could 
have been of much value in warfare, and was, perhaps, meant as a 
protection against incursions of wild animals. 

In the hillsides around Gezer there are many caves which were 
probably human habitations during this period, but as they have 
been open during many centuries, traces of their early occupation 
have long since been destroyed. At Beit Jibrin, six or eight hours 
to the south of Gezer, there are also many caves in the rock, num- 
bers of which are artificial. At various periods these have been 
employed as residences. It is altogether probable that the use of 
some of them goes back to the time of the cave-dwellers of Gezer. 

Mr. Macalister has suggested a connection between these cave- 
dwellers of Gezer and the Biblical Horites,! since Horite means 
““cave-dweller.”” In the Bible the Horites are said to have dwelt to 
the east of the Jordan, and more especially in Edom (Gen. 14 : 6; 
36 : 20, 21, 29; Deut. 2:12, 22). It seems probable that the 
reason why the Bible places them all beyond Jordan is that the 
cave-dwellers had disappeared from western Palestine centuries 
before the Hebrews came, while to the east of the Jordan they 
lingered on until displaced by those who were more nearly con- 
temporary with the Hebrews. On the west of the Jordan mega- 
lithic monuments were probably once numerous, since traces of them 
still survive in Galilee and Judza,? but later divergent civilizations 
have removed most of them. In the time of Amos one of these 
“gilgals” was used by the Hebrews as a place of worship, of which 
the prophet did not approve.? 

It seems probable that there was a settlement of these cave- 
dwellers at Jerusalem. The excavations of Capt. Parker brought 
to light an extensive system of caves around the Virgin’s Fountain, 
Ain Sitti Miriam, as the Arabs call it, which is the Biblical Gihon.* 
These caves are far below the present surface of the ground. It 
was found, too, that there would be no spring at this point at all, 
if some early men had not walled up the natural channel in the 
rock down which the water originally ran. These men, judging 
by the fragments of pottery and the depth of the débris, belonged 


1R. A. S. Macalister, Bible Side-lights from the Mound of Gezer, London, 1906, Chapter II. 
2See P. E. Mader in Zeitschrift des deutschen Paldstina-Vereins, Vol. XXXVII, 1914, pp. 20-44. 
3 See Amos 4:4;5:5. 

4See Dr. Masterman, in Biblical World, XX XIX, 301, f. 


122 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


to about the same period as the cave-dwellers of Gezer. They 
apparently settled at this point because of the water, and one of 
the caves may have been a sanctuary to their god. A new vista is 
thus added to the history of that city, which was later the scene 
of so much Biblical life. 

From various archeological considerations Mr. Macalister 
estimated that the diminutive cave-dwelling men lived at Gezer 
for about 500 years, from 3000 to 2500 B. C., when they were dis- 
placed by a Semitic people. 

3. The Amorites.—We are accustomed to call this Semitic 
people Amorites, and it is probable that this is right. About 2800 
B. C., under a great king named Sargon,1 a city of Babylonia called 
Uru, or Amurru,? and Agade conquered all of Babylonia. The 
dynasty founded by Sargon was Semitic and ruled Babylonia for 
197 years.* Even before Sargon conquered Babylonia, Lugal- 
zaggisi, King of Erech, had penetrated to the Mediterranean coast. 
Sargon and two of his successors, Naram-Sin and Shargali-sharri, 
carried their conquests to the Mediterranean lands. A seal of the 
last-mentioned king was found in Cyprus. It is probable that the 
coming of the Amorites began in the north with the conquests of 
these kings. To the east of the Lebanon the Princeton expedition 
found stone structures similar to Babylonian Ziggurats, which they 
attribute to the Amorites, and hold to indicate the prevalence of 
Babylonian influence in this region. It is probable that the 
Amorites slowly worked southward, occupying different cities as 
they went. Mr. Macalister’s estimate that they reached Gezer 
about 2500 B. c. is not, therefore, unreasonable, though they may 
have arrived there a century earlier than that. This was the 
beginning of that long intercourse with Babylonia which resulted 
in the employment of the Babylonian language and script for the 
purpose of expressing written thought in Palestine long after the 
Egyptians had conquered the country. This intercourse was the 
more natural because the Semites who came to Palestine were of 
the same race as those who were dominant in Babylonia. 

Meantime, the Egyptians had begun to take notice of Palestine. 
Uni, an officer of Pepi I of the sixth Egyptian dynasty, relates that 
he crossed the sea in ships to the back of the height of the ridge 


1 See the legend concerning him translated in Part II, p. 337, f. 
2See Clay, Amurru, Philadelphia, 1909, pp. 102, 103. 
* See Recueil de travaua relatifs & phil. et & arch. egpt. et assyr., XXXIV, 105-108, 


PALESTINE’S ARCHAOLOGICAL HISTORY 123 


north of the “‘sand-dwellers” and punished the inhabitants.! This 
refers to the coast of Palestine in the neighborhood of the Philistine 
cities or Gezer. The time was between 2600 and 2570 B. c. 
Egypt was at this time only anxious to make her own borders se- 
cure; she had no desire to occupy this Asiatic land. 

Again, between 2300 and 2200 B. c., a fresh migration of Semites, 
apparently also of the Amorite branch, invaded Babylonia and in 
time made the city of Babylon the head of a great empire. This 
race furnished the first dynasty of Babylon, which ruled from 
2210 to 1924 B. c. Its greatest king, Hammurapi,? who gave to 
Babylonia a code of laws in the vernacular language,* conquered the 
‘““west land,’’ which means the Mediterranean coast. It was prob- 
ably under his successor, Shamsu-iluna, but certainly under one of 
the kings of this period, that a man in Sippar, in leasing a wagon for 
a year, stipulated that it should not be driven to the Mediterranean 
coast, because, apparently, travel between that coast and northern 
Babylonia was so frequent.* In this same period there lived in 
Babylonia an Abraham, the records of some of whose business 
documents have come down to us.5> We also find there men who 
bore the names Yagubilu (Jacobel) and Yashubilu (Josephel), 
and one who was called simply Yagub, or Jacob. Palestinian evi- 
dence from a later time leads us to believe that men bearing all 
these names migrated during this period to Palestine and gave their 
names to cities which they either built or occupied.® 

Egyptians also came to Palestine during this period. The 
tale of Sinuhe’ relates the adventures of a man who fled to 
Palestine in the year 1970 B. c., and who reached the land of Kedem, 
or the East, which apparently lay to the east of the Jordan.’ It 
is referred to several times in the old Testament. (See Gen. 29 : 1; 
Judges 6:3, 33; 7:12; 8:10; Job 1:3, etc.) Sinuhe there en- 
tered the service of an Amorite chieftain, Ammienshi, married his 
eldest daughter, became ruler of a portion of his land, and lived 
there for many years. He finally returned to Egypt and wrote an 
account of his adventures. This region was also called by Sinuhe 


1See Breasted, Ancient Records, Egypt, Vol. I, Chicago, 1906, § 315. 

2See Chapter II, p. 63. 

8 Translated in Part II, p. 340, f. 

4See Part II, p. 319. 

5See Part II, p. 316, ff. 

6 See Part II, p. 325, ff. 

7See Breasted, Ancient Records, Egypt, I, p. 233, f. 

8See Barton, Commentary on Job, New York, 1911, pp. 5-7, and Breasted, Ancient Records, 
Egypt, 1, p. 238, note a. 


124 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


and other Egyptians Upper Retenu, a name which they also ap- 
plied to all the higher parts of Syria and Palestine. Retenu is 
philologically equivalent to Lotan (Gen. 36 > 20, 22, 293 1 Chrens 
1:38, 39) and Lot (Gen. 11:27; 12:4, etc.). When Sinuhe ar- 
rived in Kedem he found other Egyptians already there. Ammi- 
enshi was well acquainted with Egyptians. There was apparently 
considerable trade with Egypt at this time. Men from Palestine 
often went there for this purpose. Such traders are pictured on an 
Egyptian tomb of this period. Trade with Egypt is also shown to 
have existed by the discovery of Egyptian scarabs of the time of the 
Middle Kingdom in the excavation of Gezer, Jericho, Taanach, and 
Megiddo. As Egypt was nearer and commerce with it easier, its art 
affected the art of Palestine during this period more than did the 
art of Babylon, although the people were akin to the Babylonians. 
In the reign of Sesostris III, 1887-1849 8. c., the Egyptian king 
sent an expedition into Palestine, and captured a place, called in 
Egyptian Sekmem, which is thought by some to be a misspelling of 
Shechem.’ This expedition probably stimulated Egyptian influ- 
ence in the country, though the Egyptians established no per- 
manent control over the land at this time. 

When the Amorites occupied Palestinian cities they at once erec- 
ted fortifications. The inmost of the three walls of Gezer is their 
work. It was a wall about 13 feet in thickness, in which were 
towers 41 feet long and 24 feet thick and about 90 feet apart. It 
contained at least two gates.2, At Megiddo the city was surrounded 
by a wall, parts of which were made of brick,® while at Jericho the 
older of the walls of the central citadel dates from this time.4 

4. The Canaanites.—Between 1800 and 1750 B. c. a migration 
occurred which greatly disturbed all western Asia. There moved 
into Babylonia from the east a people called Kassites. They con- 
quered Babylonia and established a dynasty which reigned for 576 
years.° Coincident with this movement into Babylonia there was 
a migration across the whole of Asia to the westward, which 
caused an invasion of Egypt and the establishment of the Hyksos 
dynasties there. As pointed out previously,’ it is possible that 


1See Breasted, Ancient’ Records, Egypt, § 680, and Barton in Journal of Biblical Literature, 
Vol. XXVIII, p. 29. 

2 Macalister. Excavation of Gezer, I, 238-243 and 253. 

3 Tell el-Mutesellim, ‘Tafeln, vii—xi. 

4See Chapter IV, p. 106. 

5 See Chapter IT, p. 63, f. 

8See Chapter I, p. 28. ‘ 7See Chapter III, p. 81, f. 


PALESTINE’S ARCHAOLOGICAL HISTORY 125 


this movement, in so far as the leadership of the invasion of Egypt 
was concerned, was Hittite. In any event, however, many Semites 
were involved in it, as the Semitic names in the Egyptian Delta at 
this time prove. It is customary to assume that it was in connec- 
tion with this migration that the Canaanites came into Palestine. 
This cannot, in the present state of our knowledge, be clearly 
proved, but such evidence as we have points in this direction. 
There began at this time a new period of culture at Gezer, which is 
quite distinguishable from that which had preceded. This indi- 
cates the coming of new influences. Moreover, there was appar- 
ently an augmentation of the population of Palestine at this time. 
New cities were founded at Tell el-Hesy and Tell es-Safi,! and else- 
where. We thus feel sure that there was an increase of population 
and, when next our written sources reveal to us the location of the 
nations, the Canaanites were dwelling in Phcenicia. The Egyptian 
scribes of a later time called the entire western part of Syria and 
Palestine “The Canaan.’’? Probably, therefore, the Canaanites 
settled along the sea coast. We, therefore, infer that they came 
into this region at this time. With the coming of an increased 
population, the Amorites appear to have been in part subjugated 
and absorbed, and in part forced into narrower limits. A powerful 
group of them maintained their integrity in the region afterward 
occupied by the tribe of Asher and in the valley between the 
Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon mountains, where they afterward 
formed a kingdom. Another group of them survived to the east of 
the Jordan, where they maintained a kingdom until overthrown by 
the Hebrews. (See Num. 21 and Deut. 1-3.) 

After the coming of the Canaanites our information concerning 
the history of Palestine fails us for nearly three hundred years. 
All that we know of the history of the country is what can be in- 
ferred from the accumulated débris of the ‘‘second Semitic’”’ strata 
of the different mounds that have been excavated. During these 
centuries Egypt was invaded by the Hyksos, whose course was run, 
and under the great eighteenth dynasty the Hyksos were expelled, 
chased into Asia, and the conquest of Asia undertaken. 

5. Egyptian Domination.—Ahmose I, 1580-1557 B. c., besieged 
Sharuhen (Josh. 19:6) in southern Palestine for six years and 
captured it, while both Amenophis I and Thothmes I between 1557 


1See Chapter IV, pp. 95, 97. 
2See Breasted, Ancient Records, Egypt, III, § 616. 


126 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


and 1501 B. c. made raids through Palestine and Syria to the 
Euphrates. Of their deeds in Palestine no records have survived. 

(1) Thothmes III.—It is not until the reign of Thothmes III 
that detailed information begins. Between 1478 and 1447 B. c. 
this king made no less than seventeen expeditions into Palestine, 
Phoenicia, and Syria. At the beginning of his reign this country 
was dotted with petty kingdoms; before its close he had so thor- 
oughly amalgamated it with Egypt that it remained an integral 
part of the Egyptian dominion for 100 years. Before his death 
Thothmes inscribed on the walls of the temple of Amon at Thebes 
a list of the places in Asia which he had conquered. Many of 
these were in Palestine and in Syria, and we learn in this way what 
towns were already places of importance a century or two before the 
Hebrew conquest. Among places that are mentioned in the Old 
Testament he names! Kedesh (Josh. 19 : 37), Megiddo, Lebonah 
(Judges 21:19), Addar (Josh. 15 : 3), two different cities named 
Abel; see Judges 7 : 22 (which mentions one situated in the Jordan 
valley), and 2 Sam. 20: 14 (which refers to one near Dan), Damas- 
cus, Hammath? (Josh. 19 : 35), situated on the Sea of Galilee (where 
there are still hot springs), Beeroth (Josh. 9 : 17), Sharon, Tob 
(Judges 11:3, 5), Kanah (Josh. 19:28), Ashtaroth (Deut. 1:4; 
Josh. 9 : 20), Makkedah (Josh. 15 : 41), Laish (Judges 18 : 7, 18), 
Hazor (Josh. 11:1; Judges 4:2), Chinneroth (Josh. 11 72) 
Shunem (Josh. 19:18; 1 Sam. 28:41; 2 Kings 4 : 8), Achshaph 
(Josh. 11:1), Taanach, Ibleam (Josh. 17 : 11; Judges 1 : 27), Ijon 
(1 Kings 15 : 20), Accho, Anaharath (Josh. 19 : 19), Ophra (Judges 
6:11), Joppa, Gath, Lod (Neh. 7 : 37) or Lydda (Acts 9 : 32), Ono 
(1 Chron. 8:12), Aphik (1 Sam. 4 : 1), Migdol, Ephes-dammim 
(1 Sam. 17 : 1), Rakkath (Josh. 19 : 35), Gerar (Gen. 20: 1, etc.), 
Rabbith (Josh. 19:20), Namaah (Josh. 15:41), Rehob (Josh. 
19 : 28), Edrei (Deut. 1:4; Josh. 12:4), Daiban (Neh. 11 1725)} 
Bethshean (Josh. 17:11), Beth-anoth (Josh. 15:59), Helkath 
(Josh. 19 : 25), Geba (Josh. 18 : 24), Zererah (Judges 7 : 22), and 
Zephath (Judges 1:17). In addition to these towns which are 
mentioned in the Bible, the list of Thothmes III contains many 
other names which we cannot yet identify. Among these are the 
names of two cities, Josephel and Jacobel, which are discussed in 


1 Translated from W. Max Miiller’s publication in the Mitteilungen der vorderasiatischen Gesell- 
schaft, 1907, Heft 7. 
2 Hammath means “hot.” 


PALESTINE’S ARCHAOLOGICAL HISTORY 127 


Part I, pp. 325, 326. These names, as already noted, are the same 
as the names of two Babylonian Amorites of the time of the first 
dynasty. It seems probable that two important Amorites had 
migrated to Palestine and had either founded new cities, or had 
been men of such consequence that their names were attached to 
cities previously in existence. A parallel to this is found in the 
name of Abu Gosh. He was a sheik of the nineteenth century, but 
his name displaced the name of the village previously called Karyet 
el-Ineb, between Jaffa and Jerusalem, and it is now called Abu Gosh. 
Conjectures differ as to the part of Palestine in which the cities 
Jacobel and Josephel were situated. We have in reality no certain 
clue as to this. 

It is probable also that something similar had occurred in the 
case of Abraham. It has been pointed out previously that Abra- 
ham is known to have been a Babylonian name at the time of the 
first Babylonian dynasty. The Biblical records tell of the coming 
of Abraham from Mesopotamia (Gen. 11 : 31-12 : 5), and the in- 
scriptions of Sheshonk, the Biblical Shishak, tell us some centuries 
later of the existence of a place, apparently in southern Judah, 
called “The Field of Abram.” See Part II, p. 418. 

(2) Palestine in the El-Amarna Letters.—During the 100 years 
of Egyptian supremacy in Palestine which Thothmes III inaugu- 
tated, the fortifications of certain strategic cities were greatly 
strengthened. At Gezer, for example, an entirely new wall was 
built. This was the “‘outer’’ wall of Mr. Macalister’s classification, 
a substantial structure fourteen feet wide, which completely en- 
circled the city. This massive wall remained the city’s defence 
down to the Babylonian Exile. 

From the El-Amarna letters we: gain another glimpse of Pales- 
tine about a hundred years after the death of Thothmes III. The 
Biblical cities which are mentioned in these letters are Accho 
(Judges 1 : 31), Ashkelon, Arvad (Ezek. 27 :.8), Aroer (Num. 32 ; 
34), Ashtaroth (Deut. 1:4, etc.), Gebal (Ezek. 27 : 9) , Gezer 
(Josh. 10 : 33, 1 Kings 9 : 15, etc.), Gath, Gaza, Jerusalem, Joppa, 
Keilah (1 Sam. 23 : 1), Lachish (Josh. 10°: 3, etc.), Megiddo, Sidon, 
Tyre, Shechem, Sharon, Taanach, and Zorah (Judges 13 <7 
One city, called in these letters Beth-Ninib, is, in all probability, 
Bethshemesh (Josh. 15:10, etc.). Many other towns are men- 
tioned in the letters, but as they are not mentioned in the Bible 
they are not enumerated here. These letters. were written just as 


128 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


the Egyptian dominion in Asia was breaking up, owing to the fact 
that King Amenophis IV was much more deeply interested in 
religious reform than in politics... The disintegration of the empire 
produced great disorder. The power which Egypt had exerted in 
the past made the Asiatics still fear to come out openly against her, 
but the correspondence shows that several petty states were plotting 
against one another, frequently encroaching upon one another, and 
yet all the time professing to be loyal to Egypt. The largest num- 
ber of these states were in the north in Phcenicia. The principal 
states were the city kingdoms of Gebal, Beirut, Tyre, Jerusalem, 
and the Amorites.?. Jerusalem at this time ruled a considerable 
territory,® but its history will be discussed connectedly in a future 
chapter.* The kings of the Amorites during this period were 
Ebed-Ashera and Aziru. While these small kingdoms of Pales- 
tine and Pheenicia were contending with one another, and the king 
of Egypt was giving no attention to them, the land was invaded 
from the north by the Hittites under the great King Subbiluliuma,® 
who gradually conquered the Amorites and the Orontes. Valley. 
It was at the same time invaded from the east by the Habiri, who 
were probably the Hebrews.® 

With this movement of peoples there came into the west a third 
wave of Semitic migration, the Aramean. We hear nothing 
of the Aramaic-speaking peoples in earlier time, but about 1300. c. 
they are mentioned by both Shalmaneser I, of Assyria, and Ramses 
II, of Egypt, as though they were in Syria and Palestine. In later 
time they formed the basis of the population from the east of the 
Euphrates to the Mediterranean coast and southward to Damascus. 
In Deut. 26:5 Israelites are told to say “‘A wandering Aramean 
was my father” (R. V., margin). The reference seems to be to 
Jacob, though possibly Abraham is intended. In either case, it 
_ shows that the Hebrews recognized that there was an Aramzan 
strain in their ancestry. Perhaps the Habiri were Aramzans, or 
were allied with Arameans. 

At all events, in the struggles that ensued, little by little all 
allegiance to Egypt was thrown off by the Palestinians. Letters 


1See Chapter I, p. 29. 

2See pp. 85, 86, and 403. 

3 See the letters of its king translated in Part IT, p. 403, rf. 
4Chapter XIII. 

5 See Chapter ITT, p. 84, f. 

6See Part II, p. 407, f. 


PALESTINE’S ARCHAOLOGICAL HISTORY 129 


to Egypt ceased to be written, our sources fail us, and for more 
than forty years we can only conjecture what was happening in 
Palestine. 

(3) Seti I.—With the accession of Seti I of the nineteenth Egyp- 
tian dynasty, who ruled from 1313 to 1292 B.c., some knowledge of 
events in Palestine begins once more to come to us. Seti in his 
first year entered Asia, captured an unnamed walled town on the 
border of the desert, pushed northward and took the towns in the 
Plain of Jezreel, crossed the Jordan and conquered cities in the 
Hauran, where he set up a pillar, discovered there a few years since 
by Principal George Adam Smith; he then turned west and con- 
quered a city on the slopes of the Lebanon mountains.! This 
campaign regained for Egypt all of Palestine and southern Pheenicia. 
In his third year Seti was again in Asia. On this campaign he 
overthrew the kingdom of the Amorites in northern Galilee. They 
occupied the city of Kedesh in Naphtali (Josh. 19 : 37). This city 
Seti besieged and took. 

(4) Ramses II.—Thus at the beginning of the reign of Ramses 
IT, who ruled from 1292-1225 B. c., all Palestine was subject to 
Egypt. The practical defeat of Ramses by the Hittites at Kadesh 
on the Orontes in his fifth year, however, caused all Palestine to 
revolt, and Ramses was compelled to undertake the reconquest of 
the land. This he accomplished between his fifth and eighth 
years, beginning with the Philistine cities and overrunning the 
whole country to the Hauran, where he set up a pillar, as his 
father had previously done.? So far as we know, Palestine re- 
mained quietly under the rule of Ramses during the remainder of 
his long reign. 

Ramses IT, like Thothmes III, left on record a long list of cities 
conquered by him in Asia. Of these the following are Palestinian 
towns mentioned in the Bible:*? Hammath (Josh. 19 : 35), Beth- 
shean (Josh. 17:11), Beth-anath (Josh. 19 : 38), and Hadasha 
(Josh. 15:37). Pella, a town in the Jordan valley not mentioned 
in the Bible, also occurs in his list, and there is also a possible 
mention of Jacobel in a corrupted form. 

(5S) Mernepiah.—After the accession of Merneptah, the succes- 


1See Breasted’s History of Egypt, New York, 1909, p. 414. 
2See Breasted’s Ancient Records, Egypt, III, §§ 81 and 140. ' 
3 Translated from W. Max Miiller’s Egyptological Researches, Washington, 1906, pl. 59, ff. 


130 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


sor of Ramses II, a rebellion broke out. This was about 1223 B. c. 
Merneptah put down the rebellion, but in the struggle caused by it, 
he was compelled to reduce Gezer by siege. It was on this cam- 
paign that he came into contact with Israel and defeated her.! 
Some think the Israelites whom he mentioned were those who 
more than a century and a quarter before had been battling 
against Jerusalem; others, that they were those who had just 
escaped from Egypt. 

The reign of Merneptah was followed by some years of unstable 
government in Egypt, but this does not appear to have been a suffi- 
ciently long period for great changes to occur in Palestine. Order 
was restored in Egypt by Setnakht about 1200 B. c., and his son and 
successor, Ramses III, 1198-1167 B. c., reasserted his sovereignty 
over Palestine and Pheenicia. 

(6) Ramses III.—Ramses III found himself confronted with’ a 
peculiar situation. The Egyptian Delta and the coasts of Palestine 
were invaded by hordes of people from over the sea. As early as 
the reign of Ramses II the Egyptians had employed men from the 
island of Sardinia as mercenaries; there must then have been inter- 
course with distant islands across the sea. | 

6. The Philistines.—Now, however, hordes of Sicilians, Danaoi, 
Peleset (Philistines), Thekel, and many other tribes came from over 
the sea. These tribes came in part from islands, such as Sicily 
and Crete, and in part from the coasts of Asia Minor. Ramses III 
was compelled to fight with them, both in the Delta and in Pheenicia. 
On the walls of his temple at Medinet Habu he has left us pictures 
of the Philistines. A remarkable inscribed disc was found a few 
years since at Phestos in Crete. It is printed with a sort of mov- 
able type, and each character is a pictograph or hieroglyph. Prof. 
Macalister has shown that it is, in all probability, a contract tablet.? 
When the tablet was first published Eduard Meyer pointed out? 
that a frequently recurring sign, which is apparently the deter- 
minative for “man” or “person,” has the same sort of upstanding 
hair as the Philistines pictured by Ramses III on the walls of Medi- 
net Habu. This tablet, accordingly, was written by Philistines or 


1See Part II, p. 338. 

* See Sir Arthur Evans, Scripta Minoa, Oxford, 1909, pp. 280, 282, and R. A. S. Macalister in 
the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol. XXX, § C, p. 342; also his Philistines, Their His- 
tory and Civilization, London, 1913, pp. 84, 85. 

3 See Sitzungsberichte of the Berlin Academy, 1909, p. 1022, f. 


PALESTINE’S ARCHAZOLOGICAL HISTORY 131 


their near kindred. In this view there is general agreement among 
scholars. Amos declared that the Lord brought the Philistines 
from Caphtor (Amos 9:7). If this disc was written in Crete, it 
would follow that Caphtor was Crete. It is thought possible by 
some that the disc was written in Asia Minor, whence it was carried 
to Crete; in that case Caphtor would be a name for Asia Minor.! 
At all events, this inscription makes it clear that the Philistines 
came from over the sea, and that their point of departure was 
either Crete or Asia Minor. Ramses III reveals to us through his 
inscriptions the Philistines in the act of migrating into Palestine. 
With them were the Thekel, who afterward were absorbed by the 
Philistines; (see Figs. 36 and 38). 

In his struggle with these tribes Ramses III was compelled to 
carry the war into Asia, where he overcame and defeated them. 
In commemoration of this event he has left a list of places which 
he conquered in Asia. Most of them, so far as they can be identi- 
fied, were further north than Palestine, but the following are 
names of places mentioned in the Bible:? Seir (Gen. 14 : 6, etc.), 
Calneh (Amos 6 : 2), or Calno (Isa. 10 : 9), Tyre, Carchemish, Beth- 
Dagon (Josh. 15:41), Kir-Bezek, probably the same as Bezek 
(Judges 1:5), Hadashah (Josh. 15 : 37), Ardon (1 Chron. 2 : 18), 
Beer (cf. Num. 21:16), Senir (Deut. 3:9), Zobebah (1 Chron. 
4 : 8), Gether (Gen. 10 : 23), and Ar (Num. 21 : 15; Isa. 15 : 1, etc.). 

After Ramses III the Egyptian empire became too weak to inter- 
fere,in Palestinian affairs. In the chronology followed by many 
scholars today it was about this time that the Hebrews completed 
their conquest of the country and the age of the Judges began. 

7. The Hebrews.—On their way into Palestine the Hebrews, as 
already noted, invaded and conquered a kingdom of the Amorites 
which lay to the east of the Jordan and had its capital at Heshbon. 
(See Num. 21 : 21 and Deut. 1 :4, etc.). This kingdom was a sur- 
vival of the ancient Amorite occupation of the land. The Amorites 
composing it had not been absorbed or displaced by more recent 
pre-Hebrew invaders. 

It is stated in Judges 1 : 27-36 that there were a number of cities 
from which the Israelites did not, at the time of their conquest, 


1 Caphtor is the same as Keftiu of the Egyptian inscriptions, but it is uncertain whether Keftix 
refers to Crete or Asia Minor. 
? Translated from W. Max Miiller’s Egyptological Researches, I, pl. 64, f. 


132 ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


drive out the inhabitants. The principal excavations in Palestine 
have had to do with cities which were not conquered by Hebrews 
at this time—Taanach, Megiddo, and Gezer. We are told in Josh. 
10 : 33 that when Horam, King of Gezer, came to the aid of the 
king of Lachish, Joshua ‘“‘smote him and his people till he left none 
remaining.” As nothing is said of the capture of Gezer, this must 
refer only to the force which went to the aid of Lachish. This 
view is confirmed by the fact that in the time of David, Gezer was 
in the hands of the Philistines. (See 1 Chron. 20:4.) Gezer did 
not come into the hands of the Hebrews until the time of Solomon, 
when Solomon’s Egyptian father-in-law conquered it and gave it 
to him. Mr. Macalister found evidence that at about this time 
there was a considerable increase of the population of Gezer, which 
seems to confirm the statement of Judges 1 : 29 that Canaanites 
and Israelites dwelt together there. ‘This evidence consisted in the 
crowding together of houses, so that, as many new ones were built, 
they became smaller. New houses also encroached upon the 
land of the “high place.’! ‘There was evidently an increase of the 
population such as an influx of Hebrews would account for. Evi- 
dence of Hebrew conquest seems also to have come to light in the 
capture and burning of Jericho? and Bethshemesh,? which the exca- 
vations have revealed. 

8. Philistine Civilization—The next source of information 
which archeology furnishes us concerning Palestine is the report of 
Wenamon, translated in Part II, p. 410, ff. Wenamon visited Dor 
and Gebal about 1100 B. c. He found a king of the Thekel estab- 
lished in Dor, so that the Philistines were probably by this time 
established in the whole maritime plain. 

With the coming of the Philistines into Palestine, new influences 
were introduced into the country. These are most apparent in the 
pottery that has come down to us. (See Chapter VIII.) The 
Philistines, whether they came from Crete or from the coasts of the 
Aégean Sea, had been influenced by those higher forms of art which 
were in later times developed into the superb Greek forms. Just 
at the time when history tells us the Philistines came into Palestine, 
we begin to find in its mounds the remains of a more ornate pottery. 

9. The Hebrew Kingdoms.—As the Philistines filled the maritime 


1See Macalister, The Excavation of Gezer, I, p. 21. 
'2See p. 108. 3 See p. 101. 


PALESTINE’S ARCHAOLOGICAL HISTORY 133 


plain, and began to push into the hill country, the Israelites formed 
a kingdom by which to oppose them. The kingdom of Saul ac- 
complished little, but that of David, which began about 1000 B.c., 
overcame the Philistines and all other peoples adjacent to the 
Hebrews and established an Israelitish empire.! This was possible 
because just at that time both Egypt and Assyria were weak. 
Before the end of the reign of Solomon this empire began to disin- 
tegrate (1 Kings 11 : 14-25), and at his death, about 937 B. c., it 
faded entirely away and the kingdom was divided into the kingdoms 
of Israel andJudah. The history of these kingdoms is given in out- 
line in the Bible and is probably familiar to every reader of this book. 

These kingdoms, frequently at war with each other, were first 
invaded by Sheshonk (Shishak) of Egypt (1 Kings 14: 25), who 
made them his vassals (see Part II, p. 417, f.), and in later centuries 
were made subject to Assyria. Israel suffered this fate first in 
842 B. c., and Judah in 732. On account of her rebellions, the 
kingdom of Israel was overthrown by Assyria in the year 722 B. c. 
After Assyria became weak, Judah was made subject to Egypt in 
608 B. c., but passed under the sway of Babylon in the year 604. 
Because she repeatedly rebelled against Babylon, the prominent 
Judzans were carried captive partly in 597 B. c. and partly in 586, 
and in the yearlast mentioned Jerusalem was overthrown and its 
temple destroyed. 

Excavations have brought to light much evidence as to the 
houses, high places, and the mode of life of this time,” as well as evi- 
dence of how Shishak fought against Rehoboam, Shalmaneser III 
against Ahab and Jehu, Tiglath-pileser IV against Menahem and Pe- 
kah, Shalmaneser V and Sargon against Hoshea, and Sennacherib 
against Judah. It has also told us much about Nebuchadrezzar. 

10. The Exile and After——The Babylonian Exile was brought 
by Cyrus to a possible end in 538 8. c. This is also illuminated by 
that which exploration has brought to light. The temple was 
rebuilt through the efforts of Haggai and Zechariah during the years 
520-517 B.c. In 4448. c. Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, 
as related in Neh. 1-7. Thus under the Persian empire Judah was 
re-established. It consisted of a little country around Jerusalem; 
it was poor and weak, but was aided by money sent from Babylonia 
by Jews who were still resident there. 


1 See the books of I and II Samuel. 8 See Part II, Chapter XVII, 
2See Chapters VI, IX, and XI. 4See Part II, p. 445, f. 


134 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


(1) The Samaritans—In the neighborhood of Samaria was a 
people who were descended in part from Hebrews whom Sargon did 
not carry away and in part from the Gentiles whom he brought 
in. These people worshiped Jehovah. (See 2 Kings 17 : 24-34.) 
When the little Jewish state had been re-established at Jerusalem, 
they wished to participate in Jewish worship and to be recognized - 
as good Jews. Since they were not of pure Hebrew descent, the 
Jews would not permit this, so they at last desisted, built a temple 
to Jehovah on Mount Gerizim (see John 4:20), and became a 
large and flourishing sect.!_ They based their worship on the Penta- 
teuch, and were so much like the Jews that there was constant 
friction between them. This friction is reflected in Luke 9 : 51-54, 
John 4 : 9, and in many passages of the Talmud. It was this sect 
that occupied Samaria in the time of Christ and made it in his day 
a distinct division of the country. 

(2) Alexander the Great and His Successors.—In 332 B. c. Pales- 
tine passed from Persian rule to that of Alexander the Great. 
After his death in 323 it came under the rule of his general, Ptolemy 
Lagi, who ultimately became king of Egypt. Later, 220-198 8.c., 
there was a struggle for the possession of Palestine between the 
descendants of Ptolemy and the house of Seleucus, another general 
of Alexander, who had established a kingdom with its capital at 
Antioch. During these wars the Jews suffered greatly. Finally 
the Seleucid king won, and Palestine passed definitely under the 
control of Syria. With the coming of Alexander new cultural 
influences had entered Palestine from the Hellenic world, and 
down to 168 B.c. such influences were eagerly welcomed by a 
portion of the Jews. . 

(3) The Maccabees——In that year, however, Antiochus IV un- 
dertook to forcibly Hellenize the Jews and to blot out their religion. 
This the more faithful Jews resented, and a great revolt ensued. 
This revolt had as its first successful general Judas, son of Matta- 
thias, who, because of his victories, was surnamed makkab, or the 
Hammer; it is, therefore, known as the Maccabean revolt. With 
varying fortunes the struggle dragged on for 25 years.? It finally 
succeeded because of civil wars in Syria. On account of these 


1See J. A. Montgomery, The Samaritans, the Earliest Jewish Sect, Their History, Theology, and 


Literature, Philadelphia, 1907. , 
2 For the narrative of the struggle, see the book of I Maccabees, and S. Mathews, History of 


the New Testament Times in Palestine, New York, 1908, 


PALESTINE’S ARCHAZZOLOGICAL HISTORY 135 


each faction favored the Jews, and Syria became continually 
weaker. In 143 B. c. the Jews once more achieved their inde- 
pendence under Simon, brother of Judas, whom they ordained 
should be Prince and High Priest forever.? 

(4) The Asmoneans.—The attaining of independence was ac- 
companied by a great wave of racial and religious enthusiasm. Not 
since the days of Ahaz, in 733 B. c., had Judah been free of foreign 
domination. At the beginning of the reign of Simon, it was 
still but a small territory around Jerusalem. Hebron and all to 
the south of it was in the hands of the Edomites, who three cen- 
turies before had been driven out of Edom by the Nabatheans. 
Simon began to enlarge their territory. He won Gezer and Joppa. 
John Hyrcanus, his son and successor, 135-105 B. c., conquered the 
Edomites, and compelled them to become Jews; he also conquered 
and destroyed Samaria in 109 B c. He began the conquest of 
Galilee. His son, Aristobulus I. 105-104 s. c., assumed the title of 
king. A regal dynasty was thus founded, which is known as the 
Asmonzan or Hasmonean dynasty, 7. e., the “Simonites” or de- 
scendants of Simon. 

Alexander Janneus, 104-79 B. c., completed the conquest of 
Galilee and the region to the east of the Jordan, and extended the 
bounds of the kingdom of the Asmonzans to practically the same 
limits as those of the kingdom of David. The Galileans were also 
Judaized, as the Edomites had been. This period of Jewish 
prosperity continued to 69 8B. c. Through it all, in spite of the 
religious zeal of the Jews, Hellenic influences made themselves 
felt in many aspects of the country’s life. 

11. The Coming of Rome.—On the death of Queen Alexandra 
in 69 B. c., her sons, John Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II, both 
aspired to the supreme power, and till 63 B. c. civil war ensued. 
In 65 B. c. the Romans had terminated the independence of Syria 
and made it a Roman province. In 63 B. c. both the Jewish broth- 
ers appealed to Pompey, who had come to Damascus. Aristobulus, 
however, acted treacherously, and Pompey marched upon Jerusalem 
and took it by siege. Jewish independence was thus forever lost, 
and Palestine passed under the yoke of Rome. Down to 37 B. c. 
the country experienced many vicissitudes, as the struggles of the 
Roman triumvirs were reflected in it. These vicissitudes cul- 

1 See I Macc. 14: 41. 


136 ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


minated in the year 40 B. c., when Orodes I, King of Parthia, cap- 
tured Jerusalem and placed Antigonus, a son of Aristobulus II, on 
the throne. Antigonus was king and a vassal of Parthia for three 
years. 

(1) The Herods.—In 37 B. c. Herod the Great, whose father 
had served under the Romans, by the aid of a Roman army fur- 
nished him by Mark Antony, drove Antigonous out and began his 
notable reign. Herod was a man of great energy, an Edomite by 
descent, whose ancestors had become Jews by compulsion. While 
professedly a Jew, he was deeply enamored of the Graeco-Roman 
culture. He wrung taxes from the people in order to beautify 
Palestine with cities and temples built on Hellenic models. He 
rebuilt, among other undertakings, the Jewish temple at Jerusalem 
and the city of Samaria. This last he named Sebaste, the Greek for 
Augusta, naming it in honor of the Emperor Augustus. He built 
a heathen temple there, surrounded the city with a colonnaded 
street, many of the columns of which are still standing, and other- 
wise adorned it. He built for himself a palace at Jericho, and an- 
other on the top of a hill to the southeast of Bethlehem, today called 
Gebel Fureidis; (see Figs. 31 and 39). 

Upon his death, in 4 B.c., his kingdom was divided, Archelaus 
receiving Judah and Samaria; Antipas, Galilee and Perea, and 
Philip, Iturea and Trachonitis. None of his sons was permitted 
by the Romans to be called king, but all bore the title of “tetrarch.” 
The rule of Archelaus proved so unbearable that in 6 a. D. Augustus 
banished him to Gaul and placed Judea and Samaria under Procu- 
rators, who were responsible to the Proconsuls of the province of 
Syria. Pontius Pilate was the fifth of these Procurators. After 
the death of Herod Antipas in 39 a. p., the Emperor Caligula made 
Herod Agrippa I, a grandson of Herod the Great, king of the 
dominions over which that monarch had ruled. Agrippa assumed 
control in 41 and ruled till his death in 44 a. p. His death is de- 
scribed in Acts 12:23. After his death the whole country was 
governed by Procurators. 

(2) The Destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D—Roman rule was 
always distasteful to the Jews, and as the years passed they became 
more and more restive. These smouldering fires broke into the 
flame of open rebellion in the year 66 A. D., and after four years of 
terrible warfare Jerusalem was captured and destroyed in 70 a. p. 


PALESTINE’S ARCHAOLOGICAL HISTORY 137 


The temple, also razed to the ground, has never been rebuilt. The 
country about Jerusalem was peopled by some of the poorer of the 
peasantry, and the tenth Roman legion remained in the city for a 
long time to keep order in that region. 

12. Later History.—In 132 a. D., in the reign of Hadrian, a man 
called Bar Chocaba, or the ‘‘Son of the Star,” came forward, claim- 
ing to be the Messiah, and headed a Jewish revolt. So fiercely did 
the Jews fight that the insurrection was not quelled by Rome until 
135 A. D. When it was finally put down, Hadrian determined to 
blot the name of Jerusalem from the map. He rebuilt Jerusalem, 
making it a Roman colony, named it Alia Capitolina, and built a 
temple to Jupiter on the spot where the temple of Jehovah had 
formerly stood. No Jew was permitted to come near the city. 
Jerusalem as built by Hadrian continued until the time of Con- 
stantine, and the form thus imposed upon it lasted much longer. 

When Constantine made Christianity the religion of the empire, 
both he and his mother began to take an interest in the Holy City 
and the Holy Land. Other Christians followed them. The Church 
of the Holy Sepulcher was built, and the temple of Jupiter built 
by Hadrian was turned into a Christian church. Pilgrimages to the 
Holy Land began, and monasteries, churches, and bishoprics in time 
sprang up over all the country. Thus for three hundred years the 
influences which were felt in Palestine emanated from Byzantium or 
Constantinople. In 615 A. p. the land was overrun by Chosroes II 
of Persia, who captured Jerusalem and destroyed many of its 
churches. The Persians held it until 628, when the Byzantine 
kings regained it. The control of Jerusalem by the Christians was, 
however, of short duration, for in 636 Palestine was captured by the 
Mohammedans, and with the exception of 89 years has ever since 
been under Mohammedan control.1_ During these long centuries 
the country was ruled by the Caliphs of Medina, Damascus, and 
Bagdad; by the Buvide Sultans, the Fatimite Caliphs of Egypt, and 
the Seljuk Turks. The cruelties inflicted by these last rulers upon 
Christians led to the Crusades, the first of which established the 
Latin kingdom of Jerusalem,” which continued from 1099 to 1188 
A.D. This kingdom, organized on the feudal basis then existing in 
western Europe, extended over all of Palestine and Syria, including 


1 For details see Guy Le Strange, Palestine Under the Moslems, London, 1890. 
2For details see C. R. Conder, The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, London, 1897. 


138 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Antioch, and for nearly half the time, Edessa beyond the Eu- 
phrates. Its existence marks an epoch in the archeology of the 
country. 
Since the fall of this Latin kingdom, Palestine has remained 
under Moslem control. First the Eyyubide Sultans of Egypt, then 
the Mamelukes of that same land held sway. In 1517 the Otto- 
man Turks captured it, and have since inflicted their misrule 
upon it. What fortunes the great war now raging may bring to 
this land of sacred associations, we await with intense interest. 


CHAPTER VI 


THE CITIES OF PALESTINE 


THEIR SITES. THE WALLS. THE STONE Work. Houses. Pataces: At Taanach. 
At Samaria. At Jericho. At Megiddo. Founpation Sacririces. City GATES. 
WATER Suppty: Springs. Underground tunnels. Reservoirs. 


1. Their Sites.—The cities of Palestine were usually built on 
hills. These elevations, surmounted as they were by walls, 
created a natural means of defence from attack; (see Fig. 33). 
Even more important than an elevated situation was a water 
supply, hence all Palestinian cities of importance are near springs. 
The necessity of being near a spring led, in some cases, to the erec- 
tion of a city on a level plain. This was the case with Jericho; the 
only mound at its site is that created by the city itself. 

The hills on which the cities were erected varied in height. 
That at Megiddo rose to a height of but 45 to 90 feet above the sur- 
rounding land, but even this elevation was a great protection from 
the simple methods of attack known to ancient warfare. The hill 
Ophel, the site of Jebusite Jerusalem, rises today from 60 to 150 
feet above the valley of the Kidron, and in ancient times that valley 
was from 20 to 50 feet deeper than it is now. The same hill was 
separated from the land on the west by a valley the bed of which 
in ancient times was from 50 to 100 feet below the top of the hill. 
The hill on which Samaria was situated rose some 300 feet above the 
surrounding valley on all sides except the east, and when fortified 
presented such an impregnable front that it took even an Assyrian 
army three years to capture it. (2 Kings 17:5.) In the Seleucid 
and Roman periods, when some cities expanded in size, the hill- 
tops were sometimes abandoned and they spread out over the plain. 
_ This was the case with Gerasa and Philadelphia (Rabbah Ammon).! 
But “a city set on a hill’ (Matt. 5 : 14) was a common feature of the 
Palestinian landscape. 

2. The Walls.—The walls by which the cities were surrounded 
varied according to the advancement of the different periods, and 


1See Chapter XIV. 
139: 


140 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


according to the importance of the place. As has already been 
pointed out in Chapter V, the first wall at Gezer was but 6 feet high 
and 2 feet thick, and had a sloping bank of earth packed against it 
on the outside. This bank was 6 feet 6 inches thick at the base and 
was covered with a facing of stone. In the Amorite period a wall 
13 feet thick was erected at Gezer, in which towers were constructed 
about every 90 feet. These towers were 24 X 41 feet. Their height 
is, of course, unknown. This wall was probably built about 2500 
B. C. and formed the defense of the city for a thousand years. By 
that time the tops of the houses probably protruded above the wall, 
and the population had increased so that more space was needed. 
This wall was, accordingly, replaced by another built outside of it. 
~ Much of the material of which the old wall was constructed went 
into the new wall, which was approximately 14 feet thick and con- 
tained occasional towers. At some time a part of this wall had 
been destroyed, and then rebuilt. Probably at the time of this 
rebuilding, additional towers had been inserted at different points. 
The stones of these towers touched those of the wall without being 
articulated with them. It has been conjectured! that these towers 
were a part of the repairs made by King Solomon after the town had 
been captured by his Egyptian father-in-law and presented to 
Solomon. (See 1 Kings 9: 16, 17.) Still later an attempt was 
made to strengthen the weakness caused by the unclosed seam be- 
tween the towers and the wall by constructing around the towers 
rude bastions. (See Figs. 40,46.) Mr. Macalister conjectures that 
_ this was done by the Syrian General Bacchides when he hastily 
fortified Gezer and occupied it in 160 B. c2 (1 Macc. 9 : 52.) 

At Lachish, Petrie found massive city walls, though he did not 
describe them in detail.2 At Taanach, Sellin found a strong city 
wall, but did not attempt to trace it about the tell.4 Schumacher 
devoted considerable attention to the city walls of Megiddo, a part 
of which were built of bricks. At Tell es-Safi (Gath?) the outlines 
of the city walls were traced, as they were at Tell el-Judeideh.6 At 
Samaria a part of the Roman wall of the time of Herod was found; 
lower down in the mound remains of a Babylonian wall (see 2 Kings 


1See p. 100. 

*On these walls, see Macalister, Excavation of Gezer, I, 236-256. 
° Petrie, Tell el-Hesy, p. 17 and Plates 2 and 3. 

4See his Tell Taanek, p. 13. 

5 See p. 104 and Fig. 41. 

6 See p. 97. 


THE CITIES OF PALESTINE 141 


17 : 24), beneath which the excavators recognized the Hebrew wall.! 
City walls were found, too, at Bethshemesh,? but of especial interest 
to the student of the Bible are the walls of Jericho. Here, as at 
Megiddo, the walls were constructed in part of brick. They had an 
average thickness of 13 feet. The Canaanitish wall was traced 
around three sides of the mound. It was strengthened by occa- 
sional towers.* On the east, next to the spring, they had entirely 
disappeared. This must not be pressed into a confirmation of 
Josh. 6 : 20, that the walls fell down flat, for the later Israelitish 
wall has disappeared on that side of the mound also. Later, when 
in the days of Ahab the Israelites rebuilt the city (1 Kings 16 : 34), 
they did not place the wall on the old line, but enclosed a consider- 
ably larger space. This wall was constructed partly of bricks, but 
mostly of stone.* The walls of Jerusalem will be treated in Chap- 
ter XIII. At the northwest corner of the Canaanitish wall was a 
tower enclosed by two brick walls; the outer wall was a little more 
than 4 feet thick; the inner, about ro feet. 

3. The Stone Work.—The kind of stones used in city walls 
varied with the circumstances and the degree of civilization. The 
walls of the stone age were naturally made of small undressed stones. 
The Amorites began the use of cut stone. Their blocks are often 
fairly smooth and regular. The Amorite wall of Gezer was made of 
more regular stones than the wall of the Egyptian period.’ In 
the Israelitish and Jewish periods a stone with an embossed edge 
was Often used. It is found in the wall of Nehemiah, excavated 
by Bliss,—a wall made of stones that some pre-exilic king had 
used before,—and appears also in the structures of Herod the Great. 
In the structures of Constantine and later Byzantine builders, this 
type of stone is replaced by a stone with a perfectly smooth surface 
—much more smooth than anything found in the early walls. This 
type of stone work continued through the crusading period; (see 
Figs. 253, 254.) While these types can be traced, their use was 
not altogether regular.® 

The areas of Palestinian cities in the early time were very small. 
All of Canaanite Jericho could be put in the Colosseum at Rome! 


1 Harvard Theological Review, III, 137. 

2 Palestine Exploration Fund’s Annual, II, 17, f. 

8 Sellin and Watzinger’s Jericho, p. 29, f. and Tafel I. 

4 Thid., 54, ff. 

5 See Macalister, Excavation of Gezer, I, 244. 

8 See Dickie, in Quarterly Statement of Palestine Exploration Fund, 1897, 61-67. 


142 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Megiddo, one of the largest of these early cities, was built on a 
mound that contained only about eleven acres, and Jebusite Jeru- 
salem was built on a ridge that in ancient times contained not less 
than nine or more than thirteen acres. 

4. Houses.—Within these small areas the houses were crowded 
together, as in the modern native villages of Palestine, separated 
only by narrow, crooked lanes. One may see in Hebron or in 
some parts of Jerusalem similar conditions to this day. There was 
no drainage; refuse was thrown into the streets. The cities were 
ill-smelling places. The wonder is that the mortality was not 
greater. The houses in the central, elevated portion of Palestine 
were usually of stone, though at Gezer, Jericho, and places in the 
lower-lying portions of the country they were sometimes of brick. 
The walls of the stone houses were constructed of rough stones 
of a great variety of sizes, from small pebbles to large boulders. 
Mortar and cement were never used. The stones were set in mud. 
They were not dressed except with a hammer in the roughest way. 
The joints between them were wide and irregular. Into the crev- 
ices serpents and scorpions might crawl. It was of such a house 
that Amos says, “a man. . . leaned his hand on the wall anda 
serpent bit him” (5:19). The bricks were rarely burned; they 
were simply sun-dried, and had no more cohesion than the earth in 
which they were embedded. The houses generally had no floor ex- 
cept the earth, which was smoothed off and packed hard. Some- 
times this was varied by mixing lime with the mud and letting it 
harden, and sometimes floors of cobblestones or stone chippings 
mixed with lime were found. In the Roman period mosaic floors, 
made by embedding small smoothly cut squares of stone in the 
earth, were introduced. By employing stones of different colors 
the mosaics were often worked into beautiful patterns; (see Figs. 
35, 42, 43, 44, 47, and 48). Sometimes pictures of birds and ani- 
mals were formed in the floors. 

The doorways were usually simply an opening made by the 
vertical sides left in the masonry. In the later time they were some- 
times lined with standing stones. The doors themselves have long 
since disappeared, but there is evidence that, like many houses still 
to be seen in Palestine, they were made fast to a post, the lower end 
of which was set in a hollow or perforated stone. When the door 
swung the whole post turned in this stone. Some of these stones 
were found. In a few houses at Gezer enclosures of stones on end 


THE CITIES OF PALESTINE 143 


were sometimes found in the middle or the corners of dwelling 
houses. Perhaps these were hearths.1 Some houses built after 
the time of Alexander the Great had a kind of piazza running along 
the side. The remains of the pillars which supported the roofs of 
these were discovered. Beginning with the Hellenistic period, 
some of the better houses had baths. (On doors, see Figs. 49, 50.) 

5. Palaces.—In the excavation of different sites the outlines of 
several larger buildings or palaces were uncovered. A few of these 
are of interest to the student of the Bible. 

(1) At Taanach.—In the northeast of the mound at Taanach? 
the remains of a building about 75 X 77 feet were found. It was 
in existence in the fourteenth century before Christ. This building 
contained several rooms, as the plan will make clear; (see Fig. 45). 
The remains of the wall still showed one layer of hewn stones, some 
of which were very large. In a vault underneath the building 
four cuneiform tablets were found. They had been placed there for 
safety in time of siege, and these four tablets had been overlooked 
when the rest of the archive was rifled. These tablets proved to be 
letters written at the same time as those found at El-Amarna.*® 
The building was the palace of a Canaanite king. 

(2) At Samaria.—Of especial interest to the student of the Bible 
are the palaces of the Hebrew period. At Samaria Reisner dis- 
covered massive walls, which were probably the remains of the 
palaces of Omri and Ahab. That of Omri was built of large 
stones and rested on the native rock. As Omri was the founder 
of the city (1 Kings 16 : 24), there can be little doubt that this 
was his palace. An enlargement of this consisted of walls the con- 
struction of which was finer. They were faced with white marble. 
In this palace an alabaster vase was found, inscribed with the name 
of Osorkon II, King of Egypt, who was a contemporary of King 
Ahab. This is, therefore, believed to be the palace of Ahab— 
perhaps the “house of ivory” which Ahab built (1 Kings 22 : 39). 
As the volume on the excavation at Samaria is not yet published, 
it is impossible to give detailed plans of these buildings. The 
accompanying picture (Fig. 52) shows some of their walls. 

(3) At Jericho—Another building of this period, which the 
excavators believed might have been built by Hiel, the rebuilder of 


1 These remarks about the house are based on the excavation at Gezer. The excavators of 
other sites have not given as much attention to the construction of houses as Mr. Macalister did. 

2 Sellin, Tell Taanek, p. 21. 3 

3 One of these is translated in Part II, p. 408. 


144 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Jericho, in the days of Ahab (1 Kings 16 : 34), was uncovered by 
Sellin. It is the most pretentious building of the Hebrew time at 
Jericho and may well have been the residence of the governor of 
the place. It consisted of a number of large rooms, and was 
throughout constructed of fairly large but irregular stones; (see 
Fig. 51). 

(4) At Megiddo.—Another residence of an Israelitish governor 
was found at Megiddo. This was a large, irregular building, con- 
structed around a courtyard. Some of the work was of dressed 
stones of considerable size, in every way superior to the stone-work 
of the earlier buildings of that city. In this palace a seal of a man 
named Shema was found, which bore the inscription, “Belonging to 
Shema, the servant of Jeroboam.”’ We do not know whether this 
man served under Jeroboam I or Jeroboam II. The fine character 
of the stone-work leads one to think the reign of Jeroboam II the 
more probable date; (see Figs. 53 and 27). 

One more palace should be noticed, that of Simon the Maccabee 
(143-135 B. c.), at Gezer. This palace is clearly of the Hellenistic 
type, and was identified as the dwelling-place that Simon built 
for himself (1 Macc. 13:48), by the discovery of an ancient 
curse against Simon’s palace scrawled in Greek on a block of stone. 
This building was constructed of rather finely cut stone, was of 
irregular shape (see Figs. 54, 55), had an imposing gate which 
admitted into a courtyard, and was supplied with a good system 
of drainage. 

6. Foundation Sacrifices.——When a house was built it was cus- 
tomary to consecrate it by a sacrifice. In early times in Palestine 
this was often a human sacrifice. In Gezer the skeleton of a 
woman was found built into the walls of a house. Numerous skele- 
tons of children were also found under the corners of houses. Such 
sacrificial offerings were more often made under the corners of 
buildings, since the corners were considered sacred. In Babylonia 
and Egypt the sacrifice was accompanied with the burial under the 
corner-stone of inscriptions and other deposits, though in Egypt, 
as in Palestine, the deposit was not always under the corners.! 
Similar sacrifices were found at Taanach? and Megiddo.? These 
sacrifices illustrate, some think, 1 Kings 16 : 34, where Hiel 
iy See the writer’s article, “Corners,” in Hastings’ Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, Vol. IV, 


2Sellin, Tell Taanek, p. 61. 
8 Schumacher, Teli el-Mutesellim, pp. 45, 54. 


THE CITIES OF PALESTINE 145 


laid the foundation of Jericho with the loss of his first-born, and 
set up its gates with the loss of his youngest son; (see Fig. 56). 

7. City Gates.—The city gate was in Palestine an important 
part of the town. Gateways were constructed in different ways 
at different times. At Gezer the northern gate consisted of a pro- 
truding tower, into which one entered at the side, then turned a 
right angle to gain entrance to the city; (see Fig. 58). Gates of this 
type are still common in the East. The passageway in this gate 
at Gezer was 40 feet wide.1 The southern gate of Gezer consisted 
simply of a straight passageway, 42 feet long and 9 feet wide, be- 
tween two brick towers; (see Fig. 61). Often, as in the case of the 
gate found at Bethshemesh (Fig. 59), there were rooms on each 
side of the passageway through the tower. One with still more 
space within its tower was uncovered at Megiddo; (Fig. 57). 

The city gates usually remained at the same points in the wall 
through the successive reconstructions of the city. Thus at Sa- 
maria the remains of round Herodian towers which flanked the 
gateway were found resting on larger square bases of the Seleucid 
period, beneath which the outline of the earlier Israelitish towers 
was still visible; (see Figs. 65, 66). 

The form of these gates illuminates many Biblical passages. Lot 
sat in the gate of Sodom (Gen. 19:1). Joab took Abner aside in 
the gate to speak to him (2 Sam. 3:27). The gate was the place 
of conference for the elders of a city (Gen. 34: 20). To be praised 
in the ‘‘gates,” where the city’s affairs were settled (Prov. 31 : 31), 
was to have desired fame. 

8. Water Supply: 

(1) Springs—The water supply of Palestinian cities came in 
part from the never-failing springs near which they were built. 
This supply was, however, seldom sufficient, so that from the early 
days cisterns were built to catch the water of the rainy season and 
conserve it for use during the summer months. These cisterns were 
often excavated in the solid rock, but sometimes were simple pits in 
the earth, over the bottom of which a coating of lime or cement had 
been spread. 

(2) Underground Tunnels.—In time of war, when a city might 
be shut up for years, cities were often compelled to yield for want 
of water. This was especially the case if the spring lay outside the 
city walls. In several Palestinian cities means were taken to 
| 1See Macalister, The Excavation of Gezer, I, 240. 


146 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


secure access to a spring without exposing oneself to the enemy out~ 
side the wall. One of the greatest of these undertakings was dis- 
covered at Gezer. This was a tunnel cut in the solid rock, which 
was entered by a long flight of rock-cut steps. At the entrance the 
rock formed an imposing archway 23 feet high and 13 feet 10 inches 
broad. These dimensions were maintained throughout about 
two-thirds of the length of the tunnel. The whole passage was 
about 130 feet long. The last third of it had to be cut through a 
much harder rock, where the work was much more difficult, and its 
workmanship was here not so good as above. The tunnel also be- 
came appreciably smaller. The passage terminated in a large cave, 
in the bottom of which was a spring, and was evidently constructed 
to enable the inhabitants to reach a water supply in time of siege. 
The floor of the cave is 94 feet 6 inches below the level of the rock 
surface under the ancient city. The whole tunnel is a remarkable 
piece of engineering for an early people; (see Figs. 60 and 62). 

The earth with which the mouth of the tunnel was closed con- 
tained objects which belonged to the time 1450-1250 B. c. The 
steps in the passageway had been before this deeply worn by many 
feet—so deeply worn that Mr. Macalister estimated that they 
must have been in use for 500 years. For these reasons he sup- 
poses that this water-passage was excavated about 2000 B. c. or 
soon after that date. It had ceased to be used before the Israelites 
conquered the place. 

A similar underground tunnel leading to a spring has been found 
at El-Gib, Gibeon, (Fig. 63), and one made in Jebusite times 
also existed at Jerusalem. It is mentioned in 2 Sam. 5 : 8, and will 
be described in connection with Jerusalem (p. 204). At Rabbah 
Ammon an underground passage connected the old city situated on 
the hill with a large cistern which was roofed over so as to be con- 
cealed. To this cistern in time of siege the inhabitants could go 
through the passage and obtain water. It was this cistern! which 
Joab had captured (2 Sam. 12 : 27) when he sent to David to come 
and take the city. Antiochus III of Syria in the same way com- 
pelled the city to surrender in the year 218 B. c.,? and Herod the 
Great did the same thing before 30 B. c.3 : 

(3) Reservoirs—Among the sources of water supply for the cities 


1In 2 Sam. 12 : 27 we should read “pool of waters” instead of “city of waters”; see Barton in 
Journal of Biblical Literature, XXVII, 147-152. 

2 See Polybius, V, 71. 

3 Josephus, Jewish Wars, I, xix, 5, ff. 


THE CITIES OF PALESTINE 147 


of Palestine the so-called Pools of Solomon to the south of Bethle- 
hem are unique. ‘They consist of three reservoirs, partly rock-cut 
and in part constructed of walls of masonry, in the Wady Artas, 
about a mile and a half to the southwest of Bethlehem. The hicks 
est of these pools is 127 yards long and 76 yards wide, and 25 feet 
deep at its lower end. The central pool is 141 yards ire from 53 
to 83 yards wide, and 38 feet deep. The lowest and finest of the 
three is 194 yards long, 49 to 69 yards wide, and 48 feet at its deep- 
est part. In these reservoirs water from neighboring springs was 
collected and stored. Two aqueducts at different times conveyed 
it to Jerusalem as it was needed. These aqueducts are now known 
respectively as the Low Level Aqueduct and the High Level Aque- 
duct. The High Level Aqueduct appears to be the older. In 
recent years the Low Level Aqueduct has been repaired, so that 
these “pools” still contribute to the water supply of Jerusalem. 

There is no evidence that Solomon built these. His name has 
been attached to them solely on account of Eccl. 2 : 6: “I made me 
pools of water.” The whole structure of these and their aqueducts 
seems rather to be Greek or Roman work; (see Fig. 64). 

Evidence for the dates is not conclusive,! but there is some prob- 
ability that the pools were constructed by John Hyrcanus I, 135- 
105 B. c., who made the High Level Aqueduct, and that the Low 
Level Aqueduct was constructed by Herod the Great. This is 
much longer than the High Level Aqueduct, as it makes a detour 
toward Gebel Fureidis, where Herod constructed a palace, to 
which he conveyed water. This Low Level Aqueduct is probably 
the one afterward repaired by Pontius Pilate.’ 


1 For the conflicting evidence and theories, see G. A. Smith, Jerusalem, I, 124-131. 
2 Josephus, Antiquities, XVIII, iii, 2. 


CHAPTER VII 
ROADS AND AGRICULTURE 


Roaps: Early paths. Roman roads. AGRICULTURE: Granaries. Hoes and plows. 

Sickles. Threshing. Winnowing. Grinding. Mortars. Fruits. Vineyards and 
wine-vats. Olive-presses. The agricultural calendar. Domestic animals. Bees, 
Birds. Hens. 


1. Roads.—From the time cities were established in Palestine 
there was more or less communication between them. Probably 
in a small way commerce was carried on among some of them, 
but no effort was made to construct roads, in the modern sense of 
the term, until the Roman period. 

(1) Early Paths —Before that time all traveling was done on 
foot or on the backs of donkeys and camels, and for such travel 
a simple foot-path, made by continuous use, was all that was con- 
sidered necessary. The roads constructed by the Romans have 
long since fallen into a state of utter disrepair, so that, with the 
exception of two or three roads that have been built in recent 
years, the simple, rough foot-paths that have existed from time 
immemorial still suffice for Palestinian travel. These paths are 
often exceedingly rough. They were never surveyed and never 
repaired. They were simply devoted to public use by immemorial 
custom. If a landowner wished to raise grain in a field through 
which one of these paths ran, he plowed up to the very edge of the 
narrow path and put in his seed. There were neither fences nor 
ditches to separate the road from the field. Fields traversed by 
such roads are still very common in Palestine. It was along such a 
road that Jesus and the disciples were traveling when they plucked 
the ears of wheat on the Sabbath (Matt. 12 :1; Mark 2 : 23: Luke 
6:1). It was such a road to which Jesus alluded in the Parable of 
the Sower: “Some seed fell by the wayside” (Matt. 13 :4; Mark 
4:4; Luke 8:5). A rough path is shown in Fig. 67. 

(2) Roman Roads.—After Palestine passed under the sway of 
Rome in 63 B. c. a system of roads was built to connect the most 
important places. We have no definite information about these 


148 


ROADS AND AGRICULTURE 149 


from a source earlier than the Onomasticon of Eusebius,! which was 
compiled before 340 A. D., but in all probability those on the west 
of the Jordan were constructed before the time of Christ. There 
were three main roads in this part of Palestine.2 One ran down the 
sea-coast. Starting at Sidon, it passed southward through Tyre, 
Sarepta (Zarephath, 1 Kings 17:10; Luke 4:26), Ptolemais 
(Accho), Dor, Czsarea, Joppa, Lydda, Azotus (Ashdod), and 
Askelon to Gaza. A branch road ran eastward from Tyre over the 
hills of Galilee through Kedesh in Naphtali (Josh. 12 : 22; 20:7; 
Judges 4:6), to Caesarea Philippi (Matt. 16:13; Mark 8 : 27), 
which was near the ancient Dan (Judges 18 : 29). 

From Cesarea, on the sea-coast south of Dor, another branch 
road ran southeastward through the valley of Aijalon up to the site 
of Gibeah of Saul (1 Sam. 10 : 26; 11 : 4, etc.), where it joined the 
road along the central ridge of the country; (see Fig. 68). 

Starting from Damascus another road ran southward to Hyppos, 
one of the cities of the Decapolis, which lay southeast of the 
Sea of Galilee,* crossed the Jordan on a bridge below the Sea of 
Galilee (shown in Fig. 289), passed through Scythopolis, the 
Beth-shean of the Old Testament (Josh. 17:11; 1 Sam. 31 : 10), 
through Sychar (John 4 : 5), then southward along the central ridge 
of the country, through Bethel and Ramah to Jerusalem. South 
of Jerusalem it was continued to Bethlehem and Hebron. Four 
miles north of Jerusalem it was joined by the road from Cesarea, 
so that travelers from the coast and from the north entered Jeru- 
salem over the same road. One can in many places still trace the 
lines of Roman paving-stones which mark their courses. Thus 
the juncture of the two roads just mentioned is still visible, and one 
may stand on the hillside and feel sure that he is looking at the very 
way over which Paul was taken to Czsarea by the Roman soldiers 
the night after his arrest in Jerusalem (Acts 23 : 23, 24). 

From Scythopolis (Beth-shean) another road ran southward 
through the Jordan valley to Jericho. This was probably contin- 
ued to Jerusalem. From Sebaste (Samaria) another road ran 
northwestward through Dothan (Gen. 37 : 17; 2 Kings 6 : 13), to 
Taanach, Megiddo, and the coast. 

After Trajan overthrew the kingdom of the Nabathzans, in 106 


1See p. 91. 
2 See Thomsen in Zeitschrift des deutschen Paldstina-Vereins, XXVI, 170, ff. 
See Chapter XIV. 


150 ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


A. D., he built a road on the east of the Jordan, southward from 
Damascus to the Red Sea. The Roman government kept these 
roads in good order. They marked the distances by milestones, 
some of which have survived to modern times; (Figs. 69, 71). 

2. Agriculture was the chief occupation of the inhabitants of 
Palestine. The cities were throughout its history simply the 
walled residences of farmers. Such trade as developed at different 
periods was always subordinate to agricultural pursuits. We can- 
not expect exploration to furnish us with a complete view of ancient 
Palestinian agriculture, but such glimpses as it does afford us are 
most illuminating. 

(1) Granaries—In the excavation of Gezer! it was found that 
granaries formed an important class of buildings. Some of these 
were connected with private houses and evidently belonged to 
individuals, but some of them were so large and so much grain 
was found in them that it was rightly held that they must have 
been public granaries. Some of these buildings had been de- 
stroyed by fire, and the charred grain, retaining its original shape, 
was easily recognized. Most of the granaries were circular struc- 
tures, such as are seen today dotting the fields of the maritime plain 
of Palestine. They varied greatly in size. One was but 2 feet 8 
inches in diameter; another was 4 feet 9 inches across and 6 feet 9 
inches deep. One granary from the second Semitic stratum (1700- 
1350 B. c.) was connected with a house, and contained several 
kinds of grain, each stored in a separate chamber; (Figs. 70, 72). 

From such receptacles wheat, barley, oats, and beans were re- 
covered, as well as three varieties of vetch, one of which was prob- 
ably the “lentils” of Gen. 25 : 34; 2 Sam. 17 : 28; 23 : 11; and Ezek. 
4:9. Barley is often mentioned in the Bible; the wheat is usually 
there called “corn.” Piles of straw and chaff, such as the modern 
Palestinians call tibn, were also found. 

(2) Hoes and Plows.—N aturally, the implements with which 
the grain was cultivated have nearly all perished. In the first 
place the ground had to be broken and prepared to receive the 
seed. Remains of two different kinds of hoes were found at 
Gezer, though the preparation of a sufficiently large area of ground 
to bear grain to support cities cannot have been made with such 
instruments; (see Fig. 73). From an early time the plow, which 
is frequently mentioned in the Bible (see, for example, 1 Kings 19 : 

1See Macalister, Excavation of Gezer, I, 199, f; II, 22, ff. 


| 


ROADS AND AGRICULTURE 151 


19), was in use in Palestine. A number of plowshares were found 
at Megiddo in the ruins of a blacksmith’s shop, and a diamond- 
shaped iron ring, from Gezer, may have been used to attach oxen 
to a plow, and the points of several ox-goads were found. The ox- 
goad consisted, as it does today, of a long stick into the end of 
which a sharp iron point was fixed. It is alluded to in Acts 26 : 14. 
As this goad was used in driving the oxen in plowing, it indicates 
that plows were used. These plows were probably similar to-those 
used at the time in Egypt; (see Figs. 76, 77). 

(3) Sickles—When the grain was ripe it was reaped with a 
sickle (Deut. 16:9; Jer. 50:16; Joel 3:13). In the earlier 
periods these were of flint; later they were made of bronze and 
iron. Sickles of metal are, however, rarely found. They were 
expensive, while flint was abundant and cheap. Flint sickle- 
teeth were numerous, therefore, in all periods. The earliest sickles 
were flints set in an animal’s jaw-bone, or in a. curved piece of 
wood similar to the Egyptian sickle shown in Figs. 74, 75. 

(4) Threshing.—After the grain was cut it was taken to the 
threshing-floor to be threshed. These floors were often a compara- 
tively level portion of rock which formed a part of a high place 
or sanctuary. Such was the threshing-floor of Araunah, the Jebu- 
site, in 2 Sam. 24:18. It took several days to complete a threshing, 
and as no one would think of stealing from a sacred place, the whole 
community was protected by doing the threshing in its precincts. 
Sometimes the cattle were driven about over the grain, as in 
ancient Egypt (see Fig. 79), and as is done. in modern Palestine 
still; (see Fig. 78). This is the kind of threshing contemplated 
in Deut. 25:4. At other times a kind of sledge drawn by cattle 
was driven about over the grain. Ornan (Araunah) was threshing 
with such an instrument (1 Chron. 21:23; 2 Sam. 24 : 22), and 
allusion is made to one in Isa. 41 : 15; (see Fig. 80). 

(5) Winnowing.—The grain was winnowed or cleansed of chaff 
by being thrown up, as in Fig. 79. As it fell the wind blew the 
chaff away. It is this process that John the Baptist used as an 
illustration of the purging work of Christ (Matt. 3:12; Luke 
B2t7). 

(6) Grinding —When the grain was cut, threshed, and winnowed, 
there were no mills to which it could be taken for grinding. This 
process had to be done in each home, and the labor of doing it 
fell to the women of the household. (See Exod. 11:5; Matt. 


152 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


24:41.) Grain was reduced to flour either by rubbing or by pound- 
ing. The process of rubbing or grinding was accomplished either 
by a flat saddle-shaped stone over which another was rubbed (see 
Figs. 81, 84), or by crushing between two stones, the top one of 
which was revolved somewhat as a modern millstone (Fig. 82). 
It required two women, as Jesus said, to grind at such a mill— 
one to feed it, while the other manipulated the rubbing stone. 
Such stones were made of hard igneous rock procured from the 
region east of the Sea of Galilee, and are called “querns.” In the 
different periods of the history of Palestine they varied in size and 
shape, becoming round in the Seleucid period (323-63 B.c.). The 
upper stone was apparently rotated by twisting the wrist. It 
could be thus turned half-way round and then back again. No 
round millstones, with the topmost of the pair perforated, as 
in the modern millstone, were found before the Arabic period, 
637 A. D. Pictures of modern Syrian women turning this. per- 
forated type of millstone do not, therefore, really illustrate, as 
is often assumed, the women of the Bible as they ground at the 
mill. 

Probably the millstone which crushed the head of Abimelech 
at Thebez (Judges 9 : 53) was the upper stone of a “saddle quern.” 
The importance of these millstones js recognized in Deut. 24 : 6, 
which prohibits the taking of a mill or the upper millstone of a 
poor man as. security, on the ground that that was the same as 
taking a man’s life as security. The lower millstone was always 
made of the harder stone. Because of this and of the grinding 
and pounding to which it was subjected it became a symbol of 
firmness (Job 41 : 24). 

(7) M ortars.—Apparently the grain was also frequently crushed 
by pounding it with a pestle in a mortar. So many of these made 
of stone were found at Gezer that it is thought that these may 
have been used more often than the millstones ; (see Fig. 83). 

(8) Fruits—In the course of the excavation of Gezer dried figs, 
grapes, pomegranates, and olives were found. All of these are 
mentioned in the Bible, as, for example, in Cant. 2 : 13; Rev. 6: 13; 
Gen. 40:11; Num. 13 : 23; Micah 6:15. In one trench what 
appeared to be a pile of charred pistachio nuts was found. Acorns, 
terebinth, and apricot seeds were also discovered.! Of these fruits, 
those which left the most archeological evidence of their existence 


1See Macalister, Excavation of Gezer, II, 22, f. 


ROADS AND AGRICULTURE ise 


are just those that are most frequently mentioned in the Bible,— 
the grape and the olive. 

(9) Vineyards and Wine-vats—The grape is often alluded to 
in the Bible, and directions are given as to how one may conduct 
himself in a vineyard (Deut. 23 : 24) and as to how thoroughly 
one might glean his vines (Lev. 25:5). The most complete de- 
scription of a. vineyard is in Isa. 5: 1-8. The one feature of that 
description that would survive for an archeologist to discover is 
the wine-vat. These vats were often cut in the solid rock, and 
many of them have been found, both in excavating and in travy- 
eling over the country. The vats for pressing grapes and other 
fruits may be distinguished from olive-presses because they lack 
all arrangements for mechanical pressing. The grapes were trodden 
with the feet, and as the juice was pressed out it ran down into a 
deeper portion of the vat. Some of these vats are surrounded by 
“cup-marks” or hollow places cut in the stone in order to hold 
pointed-bottomed jars upright. Sometimes the cup-marks are con- 
nected with the main vat by tiny channels, through which any of 
the grape-juice that might drain from the outside of the jar, after 
the jar had been dipped in the vat, might run back; (see Fig. 87). 

(10) Olive-presses—Similarly, olive-presses are very numerous 
in Palestine. Presses were found in the stratum of the cave- 
dwellers of Gezer. The olive industry is, accordingly, very old. 
Olive-presses comprised, in addition to the vat, an upright stone 
with a large hole in it. In this hole a beam was inserted. This 
beam rested on the olives which were to be pressed, extending 
far beyond the receptacle containing the olives, and weights 
were hung on the end farthest from the stone; (see Fig. 88). 
Palestine in ancient times, as now, was covered with olive orchards, 
many of which had oil-presses. Such an orchard was called a 
“arden.” The Garden of Gethsemane, the scene of one of the most 
sacred incidents of the life of Christ (Matt. 26 : 36; Mark 14 : 32), 
was an olive orchard and took its name from the oil-press. Geth- 
semane means “oil-press.”” Wine-vats and oil-presses were of 
various types, but into their forms there is not space to enter 
here!; (see Figs. 85, 86). 

The prominent place held by wine and oil among the agricul- 


1 The reader who cares to pursue the subject is referred to Macalister’s Excavation of Gezer, II, 
4&, if., and Sellin’s Tell Taanek, 61, f., and Bliss and Macalister’s Excavations in Palestine, 1898~ 
1900, pp. 193, 196, f., 208, 227, and 248. 


154 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


tural products of the country is indicated by the receipts for the 
storage of various quantities of these articles which were found at 
Samaria. 

(11) The Agricultural Calendar—In the books of the old Testa- 
ment the names applied to the months are, for the most part, 
names derived from Babylonia, but it appears that at Gezer they 
had a series of names for the months based on their agricultural 
year. In the stratum which contained remains from the time of 
the Hebrew monarchy, 1000-550 B. c., an inscription was found 
which, though the end was broken away, contained the following 
names for the months: 


- Month of ingathering. (See Exod. 23:16; 34:22.) 

. Month of sowing. 

- Month of the late [sowing ?]. 

. Month of the flax-harvest. 

- Month of the barley-harvest. (See Ruth 2:23; 2 Sam. 21:9.) 
- Month of the harvest of all [other grains ?]. 

- Month of pruning [vines]. 

- Month of summer-fruit [figs]. 


CONTOUR WN 


This calendar, beginning in October, still conforms to the agri- 
cultural pursuits of the year. It also gives us archeological evi- 
dence of the culture of flax by the ancient Israelites. (See Josh. 
230; Prov. 31.13; Hosea’ 2 5)-0)) 

(12) Domestic Animals.—The domestic animals of ancient Pal- 
estine may be traced in part by their bones found in various excava- 
tions, and in part by the pictures of them drawn in caves and tombs. 
The domestic animals most often mentioned in the Bible are asses, 
cattle, sheep, goats, and camels. Bones, pictures, or models of these 
were found in all the strata of Gezer.! There seem to have been a 
variety of cows; the breeds varied in the different periods. No horse 
bones were found until the third Semitic period (1350-1000 z. cy); 
It was, perhaps, during that period that the horse was introduced 
by the Hittites, who appear to have brought it from Turkestan, 
where its bones have been found in much earlier strata.2 The 
ass was, however, the common beast of burden in Palestine, and 
bones of horses are rare until the Greek period. A number of 
figures of horses’ heads with their bridles were found, as well as a 
horse’s bit, and the picture of a horse and his rider. The pig was a 


1See Macalister, Excavation of Gezer, II, 1-15. 
2See Pumpelly, Excavations in T: urkestan, Washington, 1908, p. 384, f. 


es 


ROADS AND AGRICULTURE 155 


domesticated animal of the primitive cave-dwellers of Gezer, who 
appear to have offered swine in sacrifice, but pig-bones are rarely 
found in the Semitic strata. As swine were unclean to all Semites, 
this is not strange. The dog appears to have been half-domesti- 
cated, as the Bible implies, as his bones were employed for making 
prickers and similar tools, but no pictures or models of dogs are 
known to the writer. Probably they were of the half-wild pariah 
type. Certainly they were not held in high esteem. (See 1 Sam. 
17: 43; 2 Sam. 16:9.) For illustrations, see Figs. 89-92. 

(13) Bees.—A number of inverted jars, each pierced with a num- 
ber of circular holes, were found. It seems probable that these 
were rude beehives. Before the Israelites settled in Palestine 
they knew it as ‘“‘a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exod. 3 : 8, 
17; Num. 14:8; 16:13, 14; Deut. 6 : 3), and their view was, we 
are told, shared by others (2 Kings 18 : 32). It is not surprising, 
therefore, to find evidences of bee culture; (see Fig. 95). 

(14) Birds.—As to birds, it is doubtful whether they had any 
domesticated ones before the Babylonian Exile. A rude picture of 
an ostrich painted on a potsherd was found at Gezer, as well as 
some painted fragments of ostrich-egg shell. The ostrich is men- 
tioned in the Old Testament (Job 39 : 13; Lam. 4 : 3), but as a wild 
bird. The Palestinians knew it as a bird that might be hunted. 
They sometimes gathered the eggs of wild birds to eat (Deut. 22 : 6; 
Isa. 10:14). These were, perhaps, sometimes ostrich-eggs. The 
modern Arabs make a kind of omelette of ostrich-eggs. The ostrich 
was certainly not a domestic bird. 

At Gezer, too, a clay bird was found, or, rather, a small jar made 
in the form of a bird. The object was so realistic that holes were 
left in the clay wings for the insertion of feathers; (Fig. 93). The 
bird bears some resemblance to a duck, figures of which were found 
at Megiddo,! but the duck may have been wild. One clay head of a 
goose or swan was also found, but had the bird been domesticated 
there would probably have been more traces of it. 

(15) Hens—The one domestic bird that can be traced in Pales- 
tine is the hen, and hens were not introduced until after the Exile. 
Hens seem to have been first domesticated in India. They are 
not mentioned in the Rig Veda, but the Aryans seem to have come 
into contact with them when they settled in the valley of the Ganges 
about 1000 B.c. The Yajur and Atharva Vedas mention the cock. 


1See Schumacher, Mutesellim, p. 89. 


156 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


The hen is a domesticated Bankiva fowl, which also exists ina 
wild state in India. From India the hen was domesticated east- 
ward to China, and westward to Persia. There is a possible pic- 
ture of a cock on a sculpture of Sennacherib, which would indicate 
that the bird was known in Assyria at the beginning of the seventh 
century before Christ. Another is pictured on some Babylonian 
gems from the time of Nabuna’id, about 550 B. c. Pictures of 
cocks, three of them somewhat doubtful, are found on Babylonian 
seals of the Persian period.!. The domesticated hen, traveling by 
way of the Black Sea, reached Asia Minor as early as the eighth 
century B. C.? 

There is, however, no evidence of the presence of the hen in 
Palestine before the Greek period. Neither hen nor cock is men- 
tioned in the Old Testament. In a tomb discovered by Peters and 
Thiersch in 1902, near Tell Sandahanna, the Marissa of the Seleucid 
period and the Moresheth-gath of Micah 1 : 14, a number of cocks 
are pictured; (Fig.94). The tomb, constructed about 200 B.c. , con- 
tains a number of Greek inscriptions.* In agreement with this 
evidence is also the fact that at Taanach there was found in a late 
pre-Arabic stratum the skeleton of a hen with an egg.4 Before 
New Testament times, then, the hen had become a domestic fowl 
in Palestine. Every one would accordingly understand the lament 
of Christ, ‘““How often would I have gathered thy children together, 
even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye, would 
not!” (Matt. 23:37). The cock was so universally kept at this 
time that one of the divisions of the night was called the “cock- 
crowing” (Mark 13:35). It was the mark of the progress of the 
night afforded by the habits of the cock that was used by Jesus in 
predicting Peter’s denial (Matt. 26 : 34; Mark 14 : 30; Luke 22: 
34; John 13 : 38), and it was the recalling of this prediction by the 
crowing of the cock that brought Peter to repentant tears (Matt. 
26 : 74; Mark 14 : 68, 72; Luke 22 : 60; John 18 sya E 

1 Ward, Seal Cylinders of Western A sia, p. 422, and Nos. 554, 556, 1126, and 1254. 

? See Dr. John P. Peters’ article “The Cock” in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, 
Vol. XXXIII, pp. 363-396. 


3 See Peters and Thiersch, The Painted Tombs of Marissa, London, 1905, 
‘See Sellin, Tell Taanek, 61, f. 


CHAPTER VIII 


POTTERY 


IMPORTANCE OF POTTERY. PRE-SEMITIC POTTERY. First SEmItTIC POTTERY TO 1800 
B. Cc. POTTERY OF SECOND SEmITIC PERIOD. Tutrp SEMITIC PERIOD. ISRAELITISH 
or Fourts Semitic PErIop. HELLENISTIC PERIOD. 


1. Importance of Pottery.—In all parts of the world the making 
of clay jars and receptacles is oneof the earliest arts to be discovered, 
and Palestine was no exception to the rule. In Palestine such jars 
were particularly useful, as the water for each family had to be 
carried from the nearest spring to the house. It was natural that, 
in a country which had so long a history as Palestine, and over 
which the influences of so many diverse civilizations swept, there 
should be a considerable variety in the types of pottery in differ- 
ent periods. Indeed, it is now recognized that the differences in 
these types are so marked that in the absence of other criteria it 
is possible approximately to date a stratum of the remains of any 
ancient city by the type of pottery found in it. Since this is so, a 
brief outline of the different types is not out of place here, although 
these differences have little or no bearing upon the interpretation 
of the Bible. Only a brief statement is here attempted. Those 
who wish to study the subject more fully are referred to more ex- 
tended works.! The classifications of pottery made by the leading 
experts differ, as they have been written at different times and as 
the excavations have continually enlarged the material. The classi- 
fication presented in the following pages is mainly that of Macalister, 
based on the work at Gezer and on previous excavations. 

2. Pre-Semitic Pottery.—There is first, then, the pottery of the 
pre-Semitic cave-dwellers. This pottery is made out of clay that 
was in no way cleansed or refined. It was made by hand, the larger 
jars having been built up little by little. The vessel, after receiv- 
ing such ornament as the potter desired, was usually fired, though 
sometimes simply sun-dried. In firing the heat was often dis- 


1 Especial mention may be made of the following: Petrie, Tell el-Hesy; Bliss and Macalister, 
Excavations in Palestine, 1898-1900, Part II; Vincent, Canaan d’aprés l’exploration récente, Paris, 
1907, Chapter V, and Macalister, The Excavation of Gezer, II, 128-231. 

157 


158 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


tributed very irregularly, so that the surface was not all of the 
same color. The jars were of moderate size, flat on the bottom, 
globular, conical, or cylindrical in shape. They had concave necks 
and handles. The handles were of two kinds— ‘ledge” handles and 
“loop” handles. A “ledge’’ handle consists of a piece of clay pinched 
into a flat projecting ledge and then baked hard. A “loop” handle 
is one fastened to the jar at both ends, similar to the handle of a 
pitcher. Bowls or saucers were also sometimes made with “ledge” 
handles; (see Fig. 97). 

The most common ornamentation of the pottery of this period 
was made by combing the clay with wooden combs notched with 


teeth of greater or less fineness. Sometimes the marks left by the | 


comb were perpendicular, sometimes horizontal, and sometimes 
diagonal. One other type of ornament was exhibited in the pottery 
of the cave-dwellers. ‘That was either an incised representation 
of a rope or cord, or a moulded imitation of one of these. This 
ornamentation was probably suggested by the ropes or cords which 
were bound about the vessel before it was fired, to prevent its fall- 
ing apart. At first the only coloring was a line of brick-red around 
the rims of jugs and saucers. The most advanced stage is reached 
in Fig. 96, where a network of red lines cross each other diagonally. 
The tint of the red varies a good deal, but this may be due to the 
unequal firing already mentioned. 

A few specimens of burnished pottery were found in the caves. 
This burnishing consisted in rubbing the surface of the vessel with 
strokes of a smooth bone or stone. In some cases the vessel was 
dipped in a whitish wash after it was fired. This adhered to it 
everywhere except on the bottom. 

3. First Semitic Pottery to 1800 B. c.—The pottery of the first 
Semitic period, which terminated about 1800 s. C., is of a finer type. 
The larger pieces were made on a wheel, as were many of the smaller 
ones. ‘The wheel was rotated with the left hand, while the potter 
moulded the vessel with the right. The result was a much more 
shapely type of work than in the previous period. In the pre- 
Semitic period limestone clays were employed; in this period, sand- 
stone clays. Many of the objects, like those of the preceding pe- 
riod, were of a drab color, though the tints of some of them ranged 
from a rich brownish red to orange. ‘The patches of color in these 
vessels were probably due to unequal heat in firing. 

In size and shape the vessels presented a great variety. There 


POTTERY 159 


were large jars with flat bottoms, inverted conical bodies, and more 
or less abruptly rounded shoulders; (see Fig. 100). The mouth 
was wide and circular and surrounded by a flat, widely expanding 
rim. These jars averaged about two feet in height. There were 
many pitchers made in this period. They were large and small and 
of a great variety of shapes. Such pitchers present similar char- 
acteristics, whether found at Gezer or Megiddo; (see Figs. 98, 99). 
Ledge and loop handles were common on the pitchers of this period, 
but “pillar” and “button’” handles were also sometimes found; (see 
Figs. 105, 106). The ornamentation of pottery showed some ad- 
vance over the preceding period. In addition to the rope motifs, 
decoration formed by combinations of lines was also found. One 
particularly fine type of pottery belonging to this period was found 
at Gezer. It was never found in the caves or in the higher strata. 
Vessels of this ware were usually found in groups, indicating that 
they were the possessions of the rich. The clay was well cleaned, 
the shapes distinctive (see Fig. 104), and the ware was always cov- 
ered with a cream-like coating. Saucers and bowls were common 
in this period. The comb was still used in ornamenting pottery, 
though sometimes it produced only a series of dots. All surfaces 
were usually burnished, though naturally this was much more 
thoroughly done in the expensive than in the cheaper wares. 

4, Pottery of Second Semitic Period.—During the second Se- 
mitic period, 1800-1400 B. c., trade was carried on with countries 
beyond the sea, especially with Cyprus. There was probably also 
some trade with Egypt and Crete, but the influence of Cyprus was 
most potent in the pottery. In this period, probably owing to 
foreign influence, the potters’ wheel worked by foot was introduced. 
This left both hands of the workman free and resulted in a great 
improvement of the ware. ‘There was in this period a great variety 
in the material used. The cheaper vessels were made of a rough 
clay, full of grits of black colored sand or flints, which burned 
black in the middle of the clay and a reddish or yellowish drab on 
the surface. At least seven other finer types of ware were found 
at Gezer.* One of these was a ware made of a brilliant saffron- 
yellow clay, which was enriched with painted decoration in bold 
black lines. This was probably of foreign origin. In this period 
the jar with pointed bottom, long conical body, well rounded 


1A “button” handle is a “ledge”? handle made into a round knob. 
2See Macalister, Excavation of Gezer, II, 158. 


160 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


shoulders, short concave neck, continuous circular mouth, with 
an expanded rim, though much narrower than in the preceding 
period, is the most common type. Jugs with pointed bottoms also 
became common, though there was a great variety in the shapes of 
jugs. Ledge handles had almost entirely disappeared in this period. 
Jars generally had two loop handles, and sometimes four, though 
occasionally they had none at all. “Button” handles are com- 
paratively uncommon; the loop handle is the style most generally 
used. ‘Ear’ handles, both vertical and transverse, are also com- 
mon; (see Figs. 101-103, and 105). 

The most striking feature of the pottery of this period is the 
increase in the variety of ornamentation and the introduction of 
the pictures of animals and birds as ornamental motifs. This was 
due, no doubt, to foreign influence. The best specimens of this 
type of ornamentation so far published are from Gezer, though 
it is found elsewhere. 

All kinds of vessels were made of clay during this period: jars, 
jugs, pitchers, bowls, saucers, drinking-cups, etc., etc. Many of 
the potters signed their work with a peculiar mark. This mark 
was sometimes an impression of the potter’s finger, sometimes 
linear devices of various kinds scratched on the handle, and some- 
times the impression of an inscribed Egyptian scarab, usually of 
the period of the Middle Kingdom or the Hyksos time. Jar handles 
marked with scarabs were also found at Jericho; (F igs. 118, 119). 

5. Third Semitic Period.—The third Semitic period, 1400 to 
1000 B. c., while its wares sometimes differed in form from those 
of the preceding period, is mainly marked off from the second 
period by a general degeneration in style. No great differences are 
noticeable in the kinds of clay employed. The jars have, as a rule, 
a less pointed bottom than in the preceding period; (Fig. 110). The 
combed decoration is rare, and the burnishing of the jars is both 
less frequent and less skilful than in the preceding period. There 
is an increase in the tendency to use painted ornamentation, which 
frequently consists of zigzag lines. Rough, conventionalized repre- 
sentations of palm trees are also common. In the last part of the 
period Cretan influences are traceable. This was probably due to 
the coming of the Philistines.! Potters’ marks continue, but scarabs 
are less often used in making them than in the preceding period. 
The various kinds of vessels made seem to have been as great 

1See Chapter V, p. 130, f., and Figs. 108, 109, 


E 
. 


POTTERY. 161 


as in the preceding period. A clay funnel or bottle-filler was also 
found in this period; (see Fig. 114). 

6. Israelitish or Fourth Semitic Period.—In the fourth Semitic, 
or the Israelitish period, 1000-600 B. c., the method of manufac- 
ture remained the same as before, and but little difference can be 
discerned in the clays employed. There seems, however, to have 
been a steady decline in excellence. The large jar with pointed 
bottom is still found, but there is a tendency to broaden the bot- 
tom, while retaining the convex form. Thus toward the close of 
the period a type of jar, conical in form, but with the apex of the 
cone at the top instead of at the bottom, is found. The types of 
pottery of this time may be seen by examining the forms found 
in the Hebrew stratum at Jericho (Figs. 107, 112, 113), and 
from a temple at Megiddo of the same period. (Fig. 111.) The 
forms and kinds of vessels found in this period are numerous. 
Painted ornamentation consists, as a rule, merely of rings around 
the vessel, though sometimes zigzags made very carelessly are also 
found. Bird ornamentation, so frequent in the third period, en- 
tirely disappears in this. The potters still employed marks. These 
are of the same general character as in the earlier period, though 
the scarab stamp entirely disappeared from Gezer and the use of 
other seals became common. These were most often a simple 
device of stars, or names written in the old Hebrew script. At 
Jericho the scarab stamp was still employed; (see Figs. 115, 117). 

Some jar handles inscribed with Hebrew letters were found 
at Gezer in a stratum that was pre-exilic. A series of them was 
also found at the tells excavated by Bliss and Macalister in 
the Shephelah in the years 1898-1900—Es-Safi, Judeideh, and 
Zakariyeh. ‘These handles, in addition to the impression of a 
seal, contained the words, “to the king,” in Hebrew letters, and 
the names of the cities, Hebron, Socho, Ziph, and Mamsheth. 
The first three of these are well-known Judzan towns; the last 
is unidentified. Sir Charles Warren found some similar stamps 
near the temple area at Jerusalem. There has been much dis- 
cussion as to the date of the handles bearing these stamps. 
Since nothing of the kind was found at Megiddo and Taanach, it 
has been inferred that this kind of jar handle came into existence 
after the overthrow of the kingdom of Israel in the year 722 B. c. 
It may be that the “king” referred to is the king of Judah, and that 
these stamps come from the last days of the kingdom of Judah. 


162 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Scholarly opinion is, however, divided, some authorities contending 
that they come from the time after the Exile. The date is not 
entirely certain; (see Fig. 116). 

7. Hellenistic Period.—In the time after the Exile there js not 
much change in the character of the pottery until after the con- 
quest of Alexander the Great. The influx of influences from the 
Greco-Macedonian world affected the whole life of the land, and 
was reflected also in its pottery. As in the second and third 
Semitic periods, there were importations of pottery from abroad, 
though at this time the importations were from regions affected by 
Greek art. The Palestinian potters of this period had, therefore, 
the best models. The use of the potters’ wheel was all but universal, 
and the wares were burned hard. A pile of these potsherds, when 


struck with a stick, emits a distinct musical “clink,” which is not. 


the case with potsherds from the earlier periods. The clay employed 
was the finest and most homogeneous of any used in Palestinian 
pottery, and there is a general tendency, especially in the cities 
near the coast, to follow classical models; (see Figs. 122, 125). 

Jars have rounded or bluntly pointed bases, vertical sides, flat- 
tened or oblique shoulders, and round mouths. There are two 
loop handles just under the shoulders. Another form, probably 
suggested by Rhodian amphore, has a long, tapering base; (see 
Fig. 120). 

It is impossible in the space that can be devoted to this topic to 
enumerate all the kinds of vessels that were made in this period or 
the variety of their forms. Only a few characteristic features can be 
noted. The cooking pots of this time have a very distinctive form. 
They have a globular base, globular body, short, wide neck, and a 
rounded continuous mouth; (see Fig. 122°). The body of the vessel 
is often ribbed with horizontal flutings. Small jugs and vases were 
very common; some of them had very characteristic forms. Jugs 
of this period found at Jericho had a funnel at the side through 
which liquid could be poured into them. 

As in the preceding period, jar handles were frequently stamped 
with the mark of the potter. These were now often Greek letters, 
though those so stamped were apparently imported from foreign 
countries. At Jericho ten jar handles were found stamped with the 


1 For discussions of the subject, see Bliss and Macalister, Excavations in Palestine, 1898-1900, 
106-123; Macalister in the Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund, 1905, 243 and 
328; also Excavation of Gezer, II, 209, ff., and Vincent, Canaan d’apres Pexploration récente, pp. 357= 
360. 


oe, a ae 


POTTERY 163 


name “Jah” and three stamped with the name “Jahu.’”? Both Jah 
(see Psa. 68 : 4) and Jahu are abbreviations of the name Jehovah, 
and probably are so to be understood here. They often formed 
part of a personal name—thus Elijah, ‘““My God is Jah.” 

From the second Semitic period onward, filters were made by 
piercing the bottom of a jug with holes. These became more com- 
mon in the third Semitic period, but this sort of device reached its 
full development in the Hellenistic period, which we are now con- 
sidering. Various forms of strainers were found, as shown in Fig. 
123, and one very elaborate filter; (see Fig. 121). 

With the coming of the Romans in 63 B. c., new influences were 
introduced into the civilization of Palestine. In time these influ- 
ences modified the pottery, but it is doubtful whether they had 
an appreciable effect until after the New Testament times. Pots 
from the Roman period found at Gezer (see Fig. 124) differ from 
those of the Hellenistic period chiefly in having bottoms that are 
more nearly flat. By the time of the Emperor Constantine a change 
can be noted, so that pottery of the Byzantine period (325-637 
A. D.) has characteristics of its own. That period, however, lies 
beyond the range of Biblical history. 

In the study of pottery one of the most interesting topics is the 
evolution of the lamp. The earliest lamps were simply wicks 
stuck into a saucer of oil and ignited. Of course, the wick would 
easily fall down into the oil and the light would be extinguished. 
The earliest device to prevent this was to make the saucer of irregu- 
lar shape, with a slight notch in one side in which the wick could lie. 
(See the right-hand lamp in Fig. 127.) As time went on this rest- 
ing-place for the wick developed more and more into a spout. (See 
Fig. 126 and the left-hand lamp in Fig. 127.) 

This form of lamp was known as early as the first Semitic period, 
and persisted with slight development down through the Israelitish 
time; (see Fig. 128). Its development was not, however, uni- 
form in all parts of the country. Israelitish lamps found at Jericho 
appear to be simply saucers with two or more indentations in the 
rim; (see Fig. 132). Perhaps in these more than one wick was 
used. In the Hellenistic period two improvements in the making 
of lamps occurred. The first consisted in a still further devel- 
opment of the spout until its sides almost met and formed nearly 
a closed vessel. The second improvement was, perhaps, due to 

1See Sellin, Jericho, p. 156. 


164 ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


outside influences. It consisted in making the saucer small anc 
covered. In the middle of the cover was a small round hole into 
which the oil was poured; at one side a spout protruded and the 
wick came out through this; (see Fig. 131). The top of such 
lamps was ornamented with various designs. 

In the Byzantine and Arabic periods the same general style of 
lamp was used, but the shape and ornamentation of each period were 
different, so that they can easily be distinguished; (see Fig. 129). 
After the country became Christian the ornamentation on the 
lamps was often made with Greek letters. These were made in 
ornamental forms and usually expressed some Christian sentiment. 
One of the most popular legends for these Christian lamps was: 
“The light of Christ shines for all’; (see Fig. 130). 

It was lamps such as these, probably of the Hellenistic type, to 
which Christ alluded in the parable of the wise and foolish virgins 
(Matt. 25: 1-12). Such a lamp would not contain oil enough to 
burn all night, so that to carry it to a prolonged wedding-feast 
without a supply of oil was a powerful example of improvidence.! 

1In 1922 the archeologists working in Palestine agreed to use in future the following classi- 


fication of the periods represented by the pottery instead of that given in the preceding pages. 
It is given here for comparison, though in the opinion of the author it is open to criticism. 


I. STONE AGE 
i. Paleolithic 
ii. Neolithic 
Il. BRONZE AGE 
i. Early Canaanite to 2000 s. c. 
iil. Middle Canaanite 2000-1600 B. c. 
iii. Late Canaanite 1600-1200 B. c. 
Ill. IRON AGE eae 
i. Early Palestinian 1200- 600 8. c. { Xe cen 
ii. Middle Palestinian 600- 100 B. c. { ra tice 
HLtDate Paleseeias B.C. 100- 636 a. p. { * pices : 
IV. MODERN 
i. Early Arab 636-1100 A. p. 
li. Middle Arab 1100-1500 A. pb. 


iii. Late Arab 1500- 


CHAPTER IX 


UTENSILS AND PERSONAL ORNAMENTS 


Urensits: Ovens. Baking-trays. Bowls, etc. Feeding-bottles. Glassware. 
Spoons. Forks or Flesh-hooks. Needles. Spinning ‘‘Whorls.”’ Lamp-stands. 
Keys. Knives. Saws. Chisels. Awls. Axes. Adzes. Whetstones. Files. Ham- 
mers. Nails. Baskets. Arrows. Spears. Swords. Fish-hooks. Styli. Seals. 
The “Pipe.” Harps. The Dulcimer. Lyres. Children’s toys. PERSONAL ORNA- 
MENTS: Combs. Perfume-boxes. Spatule for eye-paint, etc. Fibule. Beads. 
Necklaces. Bracelets. Anklets. Rings. 


1. Utensils.—The term “utensil’’ is of wide application. The 
utensils of agriculture and the hand-mills for grinding grain have 
been described in Chapter VII. Among the devices used in con- 
nection with Palestinian houses one of the most important was the 
oven. 

(1) Ovens—The ovens of ancient Palestine were of the same 
kind as those used by the peasantry of that country today. Each 
consists of a cylinder of baked earth about 2 feet in diameter and 
1% inches thick. It is closed by a cover of the same material, in 
which a stone or lump of clay has been embedded as a handle. 
There is rarely any bottom except the bare earth. The loaves, 
which were flat discs, were usually placed inside, either on the 
ground covered with clean pebbles or on a baking-tray. Sometimes 
the loaves were plastered over the outside of the oven. In this 
case the fire was built inside and might consist of grass (Matt. 6 : 30; 
Luke 12:28). The fire was usually heaped about the outside of 
the oven, and often consisted of dried manure. It is this use of 
manure as fuel that is alluded to in Ezek. 4 : 12-15—a passage that 
has sometimes been greatly misunderstood. Such ovens were fre- 
quently found in all the strata. In Fig. 133 two varieties of ovens 
are shown. The one at the left hand is made of plain tile; the other 
is covered over with potsherds, to make it retain the heat longer. 
Sometimes in large houses groups of several ovens were found 
together. 

Ovens are frequently referred to in the Bible, sometimes as sym- 
bols of things that are hot. (See Lev. 11 : 35; 26 : 26; Psa. 21 : 9; 

é 165 


166 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Hosea 7:4, 6, 7.) Once a much-used oven is a symbol of black- 
ness (Lam. 5 : 10). 

(2) Baking-trays, consisting of discs of baked clay about 10 
inches in diameter, were also found. These were usually turned up 
at the edges, and frequently perforated in order better to admit the 
heat to the under side of the loaf. One specimen was found burnt 
through with constant use. These trays were most numerous at 
Gezer in the second and third Semitic periods. They were found 
at Jericho in the Jewish stratum; (see F ig. 134). 

(3) Bowls, etc—In Chapter VIII, under the head of Pottery, 
the jars, pitchers, clay bowls, saucers, and cups which were used 
about Palestinian homes have already been described. Bowls 
and saucers of stone were also employed from the earliest times. 
They were far less fragile, though more expensive. Probably 
the dishes used by the common people were in all periods made of 
clay. After the introduction of metal, however, the wealthy often 
had dishes of bronze (see Fig. 135), and sometimes of silver. A 
Philistine grave at Gezer yielded some silver dishes of beautiful 
workmanship; (see Figs. 137, 141). 

(4) Feeding-bottles—A number of curiously shaped jars with 
spouts were found at Gezer; (see Fig. 139). Mr. Macalister was 
at a loss to explain their use unless they were feeding-bottles. The 
only other suggestion that he makes is that they were lamps, but 
they are so different from the lamps of the time, that that possi- 
bility seems to be excluded. Sellin thought similar objects found 
by him were vessels for pouring oil. This may have been their 
purpose. 

(5) Glassware.—Vessels of glass are very rare in Palestine until 
Roman times. In the remains of the third Semitic period at Gezer 
fragments of ornamented glass vessels, which had been imported 
from Egypt, were found. The ornamentation consisted of zig- 
zag lines. Clear glass first appears in the Israelitish period, but 
it was rare and inartistic. After the coming of the Romans it be- 
came more common. For examples of its use, see the ointment 
vessels in Fig. 138. | 

(6) Spoons.—The spoons of the poor were in all periods appar- 
ently adapted from shells, as shown in Fig. 136, but the more 
wealthy, especially when under the influence of more artistic for- 
eigners, had ladles of metal that seem very modern; (see Fig. 
141). These objects are from a Philistine tomb. 


UTENSILS AND PERSONAL ORNAMENTS 167 


(7) Forks or Flesh-hooks.—Forks were in existence, as shown in 
Fig. 140, but were used not to eat with, but to handle meat when it 
was cooking. The one with three prongs in Fig. 143 reminds one of 
the ‘‘flesh-hook of three teeth” that the servant of Hophni and 
Phinehas, sons of Eli, thrust into the caldron of seething sacrificial 
flesh, in order to obtain the priest’s portion (1 Sam. 2 : 13, 14). 

(8) Needles, both of bone and bronze, ;were found. They 
were employed from the earliest times in such sewing as was 
necessary. The way the eyes were made may be seen in Fig. 
142. These give vivid reality to the saying of Christ “It is 
easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man 
to enter into the kingdom of God” (Matt. 19 : 24; Mark 10: 25; 
Luke 18 : 25). 

(9) Spinning ‘“Whorls.’’—Spinning in ancient Palestine, as now, 
was done in the simplest possible manner. A tapering spindle was 
made of wood. To this was attached a ‘“‘whorl’’—either a stone or 
a lump of baked clay—in order to give the spindle momentum when 
whirled. ‘The wool was held in the hand, a bit of it twisted into a 
thread with the fingers and attached to the spindle. Then more 
of the wool was pulled out and held in the hand while the spindle 
and whorl were given a twist with the other hand and allowed to 
twist the wool into thread. The process was repeated again and 
again. The writer has seen women in the East spinning while on a 
journey. Many of the spindle whorls, made both of stone and of 
clay, have been found by excavators; (see Figs. 144, 145). 

(10) Lamp-stands.—In one of the palaces at Megiddo a number of 
bronze tripods of various sorts were found; (see Fig. 148). The 
tallest of these were 134 and 14 inches in height. They were in- 
tended to support either bowls or lamps. They are the kind of 
“stand” mentioned in Matt. 5 : 15 (R. V.—the King James Version 
called it a ‘“‘candlestick’’), on which men, when they lighted a 
lamp, placed it so that it might “give light to all that are in 
the house.”” Probably the poor had some less expensive form of 
lamp-stand. 

(11) Keys in Palestine were often large, clumsy affairs. They 
were probably most often made of wood, and were much bet- 
ter fitted to be carried on the shoulder, as a wood-chopper often 
carries his axe, than to be carried in a pocket. This is why 
Isaiah (22 : 22) speaks of laying the key of the house of David on 
the shoulder of Eliakim. Of course, all wooden keys of the Biblical 


168 ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


time have decayed. Iron keys from the Hellenistic time were 
found at Gezer, two of which are shown in F igs. 146, 147. 

(12) Knives——One of the first implements made by man as 
he emerges from savagery is the knife. The earliest knives of 
Palestine were of flint, which is in that country very abundant. 
Flint knives are made by taking a cone of flint that will easily flake, 
and skilfully striking the top of it such a blow that a ribbon having 
a sharp edge is split off. At Gezer one of these cones, left by an 
ancient flint knife-maker, was found ; (see Fig. 154). After the 
introduction of bronze in the first Semitic period, 2500-1800 B. c., 
knives were often made of that; (see F ig. 151). When, about 1000 
B. C., Iron came in, it, too, was employed for knife-making; (see F ig. 
150). Flint knives were always cheaper than those of metal and 
were probably always employed by the common people. Knives 
are referred to in the Bible as the implements for slaying sacrifices 
(Gen. 22:6, 10), and in various other connections. (See, for 
example, Ezek.5:1,2.) Flint knives were preferred for the rite of 
circumcision (Exod. 4:25 and Josh. 5 : 2, 3); (see Fig. 149), 

(13) Saws.—Ribbon-flint knives easily pass into saws when the 
edge is irregular. A number of these came to light in the course 
of the excavation of Gezer. Saws are referred to in 2 Sam. 12: 31 
and in 1 Kings 7:9. Saws made of thin, flexible strips of metal 
existed. These were set in wooden frames. Very meager frag- 
ments of these have been found. 

(14) Chisels were fairly common at Gezer in all strata after 
the introduction of bronze. They were made usually of bronze, 
even after the introduction of iron, although iron chisels were 
found. As the chisel is one of the most necessary tools of a car- 
penter, our Lord must often have used one in the days before his 
ministry; (see Fig. 152). 

(15) Awls.—The awl is also a very useful tool. In ancient Gezer 
they were often set in bone handles. Modern Palestinian carpen- 
ters employ a heated awl to make a hole in timber without splitting 
it. As ancient carpenters probably had the same custom, the 
awl was also one of the implements often used by Christ; (Fig. 157). 

(16) Axes were found from the second Semitic stratum onward. 
Those from the earlier time were made, of course, of bronze; the 
later ones of iron. In a few the butt of the axe-head was perforated 
to receive a thong to lash it to the helve. How necessary this was is 
shown by such passages as Deut. 19:5 and 2 Kings 6:5. A 


UTENSILS AND PERSONAL ORNAMENTS 169 


bronze double-edged axe was also found in the second Semitic 
stratum; (see Fig. 160). 

(17) Adzes——A few specimens of the adze were also found; 
(see Fig. 161). One of these was of bone. 

(18) Whetstones——Tools, of course, needed sharpening, and 
various specimens of whetstones were found; (see Fig. 158). It 
is difficult to distinguish these from “rubbing-stones,’’ which were 
used when bathing to rub hardened skin from the body. The same 
stone may at times have served both purposes. 

(19) Files—A bronze file was made by perforating a tube of 
bronze with holes and leaving the rough edges made in the per- 
foration protruding; (see Fig. 153). These were probably used, 
however, for crumbing bread, and not for sharpening tools. 

(20) Hammers.—Many stone hammers from every period of 
Palestinian history have been found. The stone hammer seems to 
have persisted even after the introduction of metal. Bronze ham- 
mers are rare. Probably the hammer with which Jael killed Sisera 
(Judges 4 : 21; 5 : 26) was of stone; also the one referred to in Jer. 
23:29; (see Fig. 155). 

(21) Nails have been found in profusion, made both of bronze 
and of iron; (see Fig. 159). As soon as iron was introduced into 
the country it was generally employed in making nails. Christ, 
as a carpenter, must have employed a hammer, and often have 
driven nails. 

(22) Baskets are used in Palestine, as in other countries, forall 
sorts of purposes. They are frequently referred to in the Bible. 
(See Deut. 26 : 2, 4; 28 :5, 17; Judges 6:19; Amos 8:1, 2.) The 
basket of the modern Palestinian peasant is usually made by sewing 
together a coil of rope made of straw or reeds. After the mat thus 
formed has become large enough for the bottom of the basket, it is 
given an upward turn to form the sides. In excavating the water- 
passage at Gezer interesting evidence came to light of the existence 
of such baskets in ancient times. One of them had been left on 
some soft earth in the tunnel, and, although the basket itself had 
long ago decayed, the form of it was still visible on the hardened 
clod on which it had rested; (see Fig. 163). 

(23) Arrows.—Of implements of warfare some portions have 
survived. One of these was the arrow, which is mentioned more 
than fifty times in the Bible, and is employed in many metaphors. 
Arrows were made of a light perishable shaft to which an arrow- 


170 ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


head of flint or bronze was attached. This head terminated in a 
point, which inflicted the wound. Arrow-heads were found in the 
Palestinian strata later than the cave-dwellers; (Figs. 164, 165, 166). 

(24) Spears.—The spear consistéd of a long shaft with a metal 
head, that could be thrown at an enemy. It is often called a 
javelin. Such weapons are alluded to in the Bible almost as often 
as arrows. ‘The excavations have yielded a good variety of bronze 
spear-heads; (see Fig. 167). 

(25) Swords:—The swords of ancient Palestine were used for 
thrusting rather than for cutting. (See 1 Sam. 31 25512 Sami: 
16.) The blades are, therefore, short and pointed; (see Fig. 166). 
Sometimes the edges are actually thickened. A fine scimitar, 
found in a tomb in which other objects revealed Mycenean in- 
fluence, is a great exception to the ordinary form of sword found in 
Palestine; (see Fig. 162). 

(26) Fish-hooks—Spears and arrows could, of course, be used in 
hunting as well as in war, but a fish-hook found at Gezer (see F ig. 
156) is of especial interest to the student of the Bible, since some of 
the most prominent apostles, Peter, Andrew, James, and John, were 
fishermen. The fishing on the Sea of Galilee seems to have been 
done usually with nets. Nevertheless, perhaps even there a hook 
was sometimes. employed. 

(27) Styli—The implements of the scribe which have survived 
are all.specimens of a stylus for writing on clay or wax; (see Fig. 
178). The usual length of these styli was 34 to 44 inches. In the 
Hellenistic stratum at Gezer, however, one was found as short as 
2% inches; also one as long as 12 inches. It was a stylus of the 
average kind found at Gezer that Isaiah was directed to use as re- 
corded in Isa. 8: 1. 

(28) Seals.—Closely connected with the work of the scribe are 
the seals which are found wherever a mound is thoroughly exca- 
vated. These were sometimes Egyptian scarabs, but more often, 
especially in the-later periods, various figures and devices carved on 
a stone; (see Fig. 175). They might or might not contain the 
name of the owner. The famous seal of Shema, mentioned on 
p. 105, contained his name, but often they appear simply to have 
been a kind of mark of their owners. They might be impressed on 
clay or wax, and, as we have seen (p. 160), potters used them to 
identify their work. If the writing was on a clay tablet the 
seals were rolled over its edge (see Job 38:14), or over any un- 


UTENSILS AND PERSONAL ORNAMENTS 171 


written portion of its surface. This took the place of the signa- 
ture of the writer. On the use of seals in Bible times, see 1 Kings 
ZY: 8. 

(29) The “Pipe.”—The people of Palestine have always been 
fond of music, though in modern times their music is of a rude and 
primitive sort. Probably in ancient times it did not rise to any- 
thing like modern standards. At least one musical instrument has 
been brought to light by the excavations. It is a part of a stone 
whistle or “pipe’’ found in the third Semitic stratum—the period 
just before the coming of Israel. It is conical in shape, and about 
4 inches long, 1§ inches wide at one end, and about 4 inch wide 
at the mouthpiece. It was perforated at the side by two 
holes; (see Fig. 168). Probably a mouthpiece of reed was fitted 
into it. It was possible to make several notes on it. This is 
probably a rude example of the “pipe,” said to have been invented 
by Jubal (Gen. 4:21), and often mentioned in the Bible. (See 
Seem 1025; 1 Kings 1:40; Isa. 5:12; 1 Cor. 14:7.) The 
Hebrew word for pipe means “a pierced’’ or “perforated thing,” 
and this stone whistle answers the description well. 

(30) Harps——Other musical instruments were not made of 
material that could. survive; nevertheless from the Babylonian, 
Assyrian, and Egyptian sculptures we have some idea of their form. 
Of these, the harp is mentioned more than forty times. in the Bible. 
For the forms of ancient harps, see Figs. 169-172. 

(31) The Dulcimer—This musical instrument is mentioned in 
Dan. 3:5, 15. An Assyrian dulcimer is shown in Fig. 174. 

(32) Lyres—A kind of lyre is pictured on certain Jewish coins; 
(see Fig. 173). 

(33) Children’s Toys.—A touch of nature that links the ancient 
world with ours is found in the toys of children. Both from 
Babylonia and Palestine clay rattles have been recovered. A series 
found at Gezer is shown in Fig. 179. In addition to these rattles 
many grotesque animal figures came. to light through the various 
excavations; these figures were probably made for children to play 
with. One or two hada hole drilled through a leg, apparently for 
the insertion of a string by which a child could drag it. The 
workmen who removed the earth sometimes begged for permission 
to take them home for their own children to play with!; (see 
Fig. 177). 


1For a fuller discussion of children’s toys, see Rice, Orientalisms in Bible Lands, pp. 49-58. 


172 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


2. Personal Ornaments. 

(1) Combs.—Of toilet articles the most universal is the comb. 
These were made of bone or ivory. They were both straight and 
curved, ornamented and unornamented.. A fragment of one from 
Gezer is shown in Fig. 176. 

(2) Perfwme-boxes.—The ancients were fond of perfume. ‘Per- 
fumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the 
merchant” is a Hebrew poet’s description of an elegantly dressed 
man. (See Cant. 3:6.) Perfume-boxes, in which the various 
kinds of perfume were kept, frequently are found in excava- 
ting; (see, for example, Fig. 180). Women’s perfume-boxes are 
denounced in Isa. 3 : 20. 

(3) Spatule for Eye-paint, etc—Little spatule, or tools for 
lifting small quantities of cosmetics, were also found; (see Fig. 183). 
These were probably most often used to apply kohl to the eyelids— 
a practice that was thought to enhance the beauty of women (see 
Ezek. 23 : 40) and which is still followed in the East. 

(4) Fibule—Another article of the toilet which is found in 
abundance in all ancient excavations was the fibula—a rude kind of 
safety-pin. The garments were held together by these. They 
consisted of a kind of perforated bow through which a pin could 
be thrust. In the earlier periods the bow and the pin were not 
fastened together. 

The dress of the ancient Palestinians was much like that of 
the modern peasants of the country. It was not, however, made 
of materials that would last when buried ina mound. All that has 
survived of it are some articles of personal adornment. 

(5) Beads were highly valued from the earliest times and are 
found in all strata. In the earlier periods they were made of 
various colored stones; it is only in the later strata that some 
glass beads are found. 

(6) Necklaces.—Beads, cylinders, and irregularly shaped pendants 
were strung so as to form necklaces. One found at Jericho is 
shown in Fig. 181. They are called “chains” in Isa. 3:19; Prov. 
1:9, and “strings of jewels” in Cant. 1 : 10. 

(7) Bracelets and armlets have been found in abundance from 
nearly all periods. They were made of bronze, iron, ivory, glass, 
silver, and gold. For some of their forms, see Fig. 182. They are 
frequently mentioned in the Bible. (See, for example, Gen. 24: 
30; Exod. 35 : 22; 2 Sam. 1 : 10; Ezek. 16 : 11.) 


UTENSILS AND PERSONAL ORNAMENTS 173 


(8) Anklets of bronze and silver have also been found in vari- 
ous places. They are like bracelets, only larger. In a country 
where the ankles were usually left bare, it was as natural to wear 
ornaments on them as on the arms. These, too, are denounced 
along with the other ornaments of women in Isa. 3 : 18. 

(9) Rings, too, of various kinds have been found in profusion. 
Most of the finger rings were simple circles of metal; usually they 
were of bronze; sometimes of iron. Silver and gold rings were 
comparatively few in number and of small size. Several signet 
rings were found at Gezer. Finger rings are not often mentioned 
in the Bible. (See, however, Num. 31:50.) They evidently 
were highly regarded by well-to-do people, for in the Parable of the 
Prodigal Son Jesus tells us that the father “‘put a ring on his hand”’ 
(Luke 15 : 22). Signet rings were the possessions of the great and 
of kings. (See Gen. 41 : 42 and Esther 3 : 10, 12, and Fig. 184.) 


CHAPTER X 


MEASURES, WEIGHTS, AND MONEY 


MEASURES. WEIGHTS. INSCRIBED WEIGHTS. Money: Who invented coinage? 
Darics. Maccabean coins. :Asmonean coins. Herodian coins. Roman coins. The 
Widow’s Mite. The Piece of Silver. Coinage of the Revolt of 66-70 A. p. 


1. Measures.—The Hebrew units of dry measure were: 1. The 
Homer (or Cor), which contained 10 Ephahs (Ezek. 45:11, 14). 
2. The Ephah, which contained 3 Seahs (Isa. 40 : 12) or 10 Omers 
(Exod. 16: 36) or 18 Cabs (2 Kings 6: 25, and Josephus, Antiquities, 
IX, iv, 4). 

Corresponding to these were the units of liquid measure: 1. The 
Homer (or Cor), which contained 10 Baths (Ezek. 45:11,14). 2. 
The Bath, which, according to Josephus and Jerome, contained 6 
Hins (see Exod. 29 : 40). 3. The Hin, which contained 3 Cabs, or, 
according to the Talmud, 12 Logs. 

These two systems have the Homer as their major unit. The 
Homer had the same capacity in each system. The Ephah of dry 
measure equalled the Bath of liquid measure, and the Cab was the 
same in each. If, then, the capacity of one unit in either measure 
could be determined, we should know the capacity of all the others. 

It has been the custom of archeologists to strike a kind of aver- 
age of the confused statements of Josephus and Epiphanius! and 
correct these by estimates based on Babylonian measures. 

Calculations based on this method will be found in recent works 
on Hebrew archeology and dictionaries of the Bible. It has been 
impossible, however, to reach certainty. Three systems will be 
found in the books referred to: one based on the supposition that 
the Log = 35 of a pint; one based on the supposition that the Log = 
zoo of a pint; the third on the supposition that the Log = 1 pint. 
The estimates of the Homer vary accordingly from 80 gallons to 
81.25 gallons, and 89.28 gallons.? 

1 An early Christian writer, born in 315, died in 403 A. D., who was bishop of Salamis in Cyprus. 

2From this equivalence the reader can easily compute the value which the intermediate 


measures would have according to this theory. The multiples of the Log which formed the 
Cab, etc., are given above. 


174 


MEASURES, WEIGHTS, AND MONEY 179 


Under these circumstances some discoveries of the Augustinians 
of the Assumption, in the grounds of their monastery in Jerusalem, 
appear to be of importance.! They found at various times in 
excavating for building purposes four vessels, which seem to have 
been a series of measures. Taking the larger one as the unit, the 
capacity of the one next smaller is three-quarters of the capacity 
of the first; the third was just half the first; the fourth, a quarter 
of it. These vessels all appear to have been in a building which 
had a Hebrew inscription over its door. Although the inscription 
was broken, the word “Corban’’? was still legible. Pére Germer- 
Durand assumes, accordingly, that the building was used as a place 
where temple tithes were paid, and that this series of vessels were 
standard measures employed in collecting tithes. The quantities 
of material contained by these vessels are as follows: 


Largest, 21.25 litres or 19.6 quarts. 
Second, 15.937 litres or 14.7 quarts. 
Third, 10.625 litres or 9.8 quarts. 
Fourth, 5.312 litres or 4.9 quarts. 


Pere Germer-Durand thinks from a study of Josephus and Epi- 
phanius that the largest of his vessels represents the Ephah of dry 
measure or the Bath of liquid measure. If this assumption is 
right, it gives a series of measures which are each about 7 smaller 
than the smallest of the series referred to above. 

On this basis Hebrew dry measures become: 


Homer or Cor 196 quarts or 6 bushels and 3 peck. 


Ephah = 19.6 quarts or 2 pecks, 3.6 quarts. 
Seah = 6.533-+ quarts. 

Omer = 1.96 quarts. 

Cab = 1.888-+ quarts. 


Liquid measure becomes: 


Homer or Cor 196 quarts or 49 — gallons. 


Bath = 19.6 quarts or 4.9 gallons, 

Seah = 6.533-+ quarts. 

Hin = 3.266+ quarts. 

Cab = 1.888-+ quarts. 

Log = .272 quarts or approximately 3 ‘pint. 


See Pére Germer-Durand, “Mesures de capacité des Hebreux au temps de l’évangile” in 
Conferences de Saint-Etienne, Paris, 1910, pp. 89-105, and Fig. 185, 
2 The Jewish name for an offering to God. (See Mark 7 : 11.) 


176 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


It is not certain that the vessels found by the Augustinians rep- 
resent the measures that Germer-Durand supposes, but it is as 
likely that they do as that the confused statements of Josephus and 
Epiphanius afford an accurate basis for calculations. 

It is probable that in actual business there was in ancient times 
a great deal of variation allowed from the ordinary standard of 
measures. We know of no rigid regulation of the matter by a 
central authority. 

2. Weights.—The two weights most often mentioned in the Bible 
are the talent and the shekel. The Bible nowhere tells us of how | 
many shekels a talent was composed. In Babylonia the talent 
consisted of 60 manas,! and each mana of 60 shekels, so that the 
talent consisted of 3600 shekels. The Phoenicians divided the mana 
into 50 shekels, and it is thought by scholars that the Hebrews did 
the same, though we have no positive evidence on the point. 
Manas are not mentioned in the Bible, unless in Dan. 5 : 25.? ~ 

In the course of the excavations by Bliss in the Shephelah a num- 
ber of weights were found, some of which were inscribed. Macalis- 
ter also found a large number of weights at Gezer, a few of which 
bore inscriptions. Some others have been found by natives and 
purchased by travelers. The writer had the pleasure of discovering 
two weights in this way. 

3. Inscribed Weights——These inscribed weights are of the 
greatest interest to the students of the Bible. Five weights are 
known that are inscribed in old Hebrew characters with the word 
neseph, “half”; see Fig. 186. These are undoubtedly half-shekels. 
Two of the three are broken, and one is perforated. The other 
two weigh, respectively, 157.56 grains and 153.6 grains. The 
average of these is 155.5 grains, which would make the shekel 311 
grains. 

Another weight, said to have come from Samaria, was described 
some years ago by Dr. Chaplin. It bears the inscription roba 
neseph, “the quarter of a half,” and weighs 39.2 grains. Another 
weight from Samaria is in the possession of Mr. Herbert Clark, 
of Jerusalem. It is made in the form of a turtle and bears the 
inscription homesh, “a fifth,” and weighs 38.58 grains. Probably 
it was intended as the fifth part of a shekel. 


1“Mana” is both the Babylonian and the Hebrew term. In English it has usually been 
corrupted to “Mina.” 
2 Some scholars understand MENE to be such a reference. 


MEASURES, WEIGHTS, AND MONEY 177 


Another series of inscribed weights, of which three examples are 
known, bears the inscription bega. The word comes from a root 
that means “cleave” or “split.” This word occurs twice in the 
Old Testament, in Gen. 24 : 22 and Exod. 38: 26. In the passage 
last mentioned it is defined as half a shekel; (see Fig. 188). 

A third variety of weight bears the, inscription payim. The 
first of these to be discovered was found by the writer in the hands 
of a dealer in Jerusalem. On one side it bore the word payim 
and on the other lezekaryahu yaer, “belonging to Zechariah son 
of Jaer.” This weight is cubic in form (see Fig. 187) and weighs 
117.431 grains! Macalister found another of similar shape, which 
bore only the inscription payim. It weighed 114.81 grains. The 
word payim is very puzzling. It has been interpreted by Cler- 
mont-Ganneau as meaning “two-thirds,” and as designating two- 
thirds of a shekel. Possibly this is right. This weight is men- 
tioned in 1 Sam. 13:20, 21, and its discovery has explained a 
Hebrew phrase which has puzzled all translators. We now know 
that these verses should be rendered: “But all the Israelites went 
down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man his plowshare, and 
his axe, and his adze, and his hoe, and the price was a pim (or 
payim) for the plowshares, and for the axes, and for the three-tined 
forks, and for the adzes, and for the setting of the goads.” The 
name of the weight here expresses the price, just as shekel, the name 
of another weight, does elsewhere.? One bronze weight found at 
Gezer bore words meaning “belonging to the king,” but it is not 
clear to what king it referred. 

A glance at the weights here described makes it evident that the 
standards of the ancient Hebrews were not exact. If these are rep- 
resentative weights, the shekel must have varied from 200 to more 
than 300 grains Troy. This is what one acquainted with the Pales- 
tine of today would expect. The peasants still use field-stone as 
weights, selecting one that is approximately of the weight they 
desire. Even among the merchants of modern Jerusalem, where 

} The weight is now in the library of Haverford College, near Philadelphia. 

* The words rendered “the price was a pim” are translated in the Authorized Version, “they 
had a file,” margin, ‘“‘a file with mouths” ; in the Revised Version, “they had a file,’ margin, 
or “when the edges... were blunt.” The Revisers add, “The Hebrew text is obscure.” 
The Hebrew word rendered ‘“‘file” and “blunt” comes from a root that means “‘to prescribe” 
or “appoint.” It could easily mean the “established price,” but can mean neither “file” nor 
“blunt.” Pim means “mouths” and is employed figuratively for “edges,” but neither of those 
meanings fits the passage. The discovery of these weights has cleared up the whole obscurity. 


This interpretation was suggested by Pilcher in the Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly State- 
ment, 1914, p, 99. 


178 ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


one would expect more exact standards than among the peasantry, 
odd scraps of old iron are used for weights.! 

A large number of uninscribed weights of the same general size 
and shape of those described” were found at Gezer. Whether 
larger weights or multiples of a shekel were discovered is uncertain. 
A number of stones might have been used for weights, but they were 
not inscribed and may have been used for other purposes. A large 
bronze weight found at Tell Sandahanna is just sixty times the 
weight of a 311-grain shekel, and may be a mana.® 

Where weights and measures differed so, the words of Amos 
(8:5), “making the ephah small and the shekel great,” gain an 
added significance, and we understand why the wise man denounced 
“false balances” (Prov. 11:1; 20:23). Indeed, of the weights 
found at Gezer so many were under the average standard, and so 
many above it, that the inference lay close at hand that many men 
had one set of weights by which to purchase and another set by 
which to sell.4 ~ 

4. Money.—Down to the seventh century before Christ money 
was not coined. Whenever it was employed as a medium of 
exchange, it was weighed. In western Asia and Egypt our sources 
show that in the period from 1500 to 1300 B. c. gold and silver were 
prepared for commercial use by being formed into rings.> These 
rings were of no standard weight; they were weighed in the mass by 
scales. Probably the rings were small, so that the weight could, at 
the will of the merchant, be increased by very slight amounts. The 
ring-form was probably selected because this shape would present 
no corners that would rapidly wear away. This type of commer- 
cial ring can be traced in the inscriptions of Ashurnasirpal II of 
Assyria,® 884-860 B. c. It was used, then, in Egypt, Syria, Phoe- 
nicia, by the Hittites, the Aramzans, and the Assyrians. 

(1) Who Invented Coinage?—The oldest coins yet found were 
made by the Lydians, and on this account it is usually said that the 
Lydians were the first to coin money. The date of these coins is 
uncertain. They bear the name of no king, but are usually assigned 
to the seventh century B. c. Mr. Head, of the British Museum, 

1See Macalister, Excavation of Gezer, II, 279. 

2 See Macalister, ibid., pp. 278-293. 

3 See Bliss and Macalister, Excavations in Palestine, 1898-1900, p. 61. 

‘See Macalister, Excavation of Gezer, II, 291. 

5 See Breasted, Ancient Records, Egypt, II, §§ 436, 489, 490, 518, and History of Egypt, 2d ed., 


pp. 277, 307. : 
6 See Schrader’s Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, I, 105 (cl. III, 62). 


MEASURES, WEIGHTS, AND MONEY 179 


dated them tentatively at 700 B. c. They probably were made 
under the Lydian dynasty founded by Gyges in 697 B. c., the last 
king of which, the famous Crcesus, was overthrown by Cyrus the 
Great, in 546 B.c. It is improbable that these coins were invented 
earlier than the reign of Gyges, and they may not have been put 
into circulation until he had been some years on the throne. It is 
recognized that the weight of these coins conforms to a Babylonian 
standard. 

There seems to be evidence that coined money was employed by 
the Assyrians in the reign of Esarhaddon. None of the coins have 
been found, but a series of loans and payments, dated in the years 
676-671 B. c., designate the amounts of money in “‘shekels of silver- 
heads of Ishtar.’ As has been noted by Menant and Johns, this 
can hardly mean anything else than silver made into coins of the 
value of a shekel and stamped with the head of Ishtar. As Gyges 
was a contemporary of Esarhaddon, it seems probable that Lydia 
borrowed the idea of coinage from the Mesopotamian Valley. 

Be this as it may, the coinage of money was a great step for- 
ward. To have the value of a piece of metal determined before- 
hand and guaranteed by an official stamp greatly facilitated the 
transaction of business. It eliminated the delays incident to 
weighing the metal, and the disputes that were sure to ensue as to 
the correctness of the weights which were put into the balances. 

(2) Darics—The invention of coined money first affected Pales- 
tine during the Persian period. Darius I of Persia, 521-486 B. c., 
organized the coinage of that realm. The gold coins issued by him 
were of the weight of a Babylonian shekel. They weighed from 
125 to 130 grains Troy. One in the British Museum weighs 129 
grains. They bore on the face a picture of Darius with a bow to the 
left; (see Fig. 189). Because of this picture they were called 
“darics,” just as the French 20-franc piece is called a “napoleon.”’ 
The daric is mentioned in several Biblical books that were written 
after the beginning of the Persian period. (See 1 Chron. 29:7; 
Ezra 2:69; 8:27; Neh. 7: 70-72.) It is wrongly translated 
“dram” in the Authorized Version. 

After the Persian period the coinage of all the nations to whom 
the Jews became subject circulated in turn in Palestine. Foreign 
coins also found their way into the country. Many of these ulti- 


1See C. H. W. Johns, Assyrian Deeds and Documents, I, Nos. 38, 39, 40, 41, 44, 45, 46, 50, and 
108; cf. also III, 8. 


180 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


mately were lost and buried in the soil, so that many, many coins 
have been brought to light by archeological research. We have 
space here to mention only those that are of the greatest interest to 
students of the Bible. 

Palestine passed under the sway of Alexander the Great in 332 
B. c., and after his death in 323 it was attached to the territory of 
Ptolemy Lagi of Egypt and his successors. In 199 B. c. Antiochus 
' JII wrested it from the Ptolemies and the Jews passed under the 
sway of the Syrians. During this time the coins of these rulers cir- 
culated in the country and are still frequently dug up there, although 
they are not mentioned in the Bible. Samples of these coins are 
shown in Figs. 190, 195. Not until the Jews had gained their inde- 
pendence under Simon the Maccabee, in the year 143 B. c., did they 
issue any coinage of their own. Indeed, it now seems clear that no 
coins were issued by Simon until after the year 139-138 B. c., when 
the Syrian king by an especial grant accorded him that liberty. 
The coins then issued appear to have been made of bronze only.! 
A silver coinage formerly attributed to Simon the Maccabee is 
now regarded as belonging to the time of the Jewish revolt of 66-70 
pea op 

(3) Maccabean Coins.—The coins of Simon consist of bronze half- 
shekels and quarter-shekels all dated in the year four. Antiochus 
VII of Syria apparently prevented the issue of others during the 
reign of Simon. His coins bear on their face the picture of a cit- 
ron between two bundles of twigs. Around the border runs the 
inscription in old Hebrew characters, “year four; one-half.” On 
the other side is a palm-tree with two bunches of fruit between 
two baskets filled with fruits, and around the border runs the in- 
scription, “belonging to the redemption of Zion;” (see Fig. 192). 
The weights of these coins vary from 232.6 to 237 grains. The 
lighter ones are considerably worn. 

The quarter-shekels have on one side two bundles of twigs, around 
which run the words, “year four; one-fourth.” On the other side is 
pictured a citron with the stalk upward, around which runs the 
inscription, “belonging to the redemption of Zion.” The weights 
of the known coins of this denomination vary from 113.7 to 192.3 
grains. The form of the letters on these coins shows that they are 
older than other Jewish coins. 

(4) Asmonean Coins.—There are many coins from the reign of 

1See Hill, Catalogue of the Greek Coins of Palestine, London, 1914, p. xciii, ff. 


MEASURES, WEIGHTS, AND MONEY 181 


John Hyrcanus, the son and successor of Simon, but they are all of 
copper; (see Fig. 193). They bear on their face the inscription: 
“Johanan, the high priest and the congregation of the Jews”; on 
the reverse is a poppy head between two cornucopias. Similar 
coins were issued by the other Asmonzan princes. 

(S) Herodian Coins.—As Herod the Great was a vassal of Rome, 
he was permitted to issue copper coins only. These exist in consid- 
erable variety. Figure 198 shows one, the face of which is stamped 
with the image of a vessel with a bell-shaped cover, above which 
are two palm-branches; on the reverse the words meaning “of 
King Herod” run around the edge, while a tripod occupies the 
center. At the left of the tripod is an abbreviation for “year 3”; 
at the right is a monogram. Several other patterns are known. 

Coins of Archzlaus, Antipas, Herod Philip (Matt. 14:3; Mark 
6:17; Luke 3:19), and of Herod Agrippa I are known. ‘One i is 
shown i in Fig. 200. 

(6) Roman Coins.—The most common silver Roman coin was 
the denarius, rendered in the Authorized Version “penny” and in 
the Revised Version “shilling.” Its weight varied at different 
times. In the time of Christ it weighed about 61.3 grains Troy, 
and was worth 163 cents of American money. As the ministry 
of Christ occurred in the reign of Tiberius, the tribute money shown 
to Christ (Matt. 22 : 19; Mark 12 : 15-17) was probably a denarius 
of Tiberius, such as is shown in Fig. 196. “The denarius was so 
named because it originally was equivalent to ten asses or small 
copper coins, but the as was afterward reduced to 7s of the de- 
narius. The as is mentioned in Matt. 10 : 29; Luke 12 : 6, where 
A. V. renders it “farthing” and R. V. “penny.” It was worth 
about a cent. The Roman coin quadrans, or the fourth part of an 
as, worth about { of a cent, is mentioned in Matt. 5 : 26; Mark 
12:42. It is translated “farthing”; (see Fig. 199). 

(7) The Widow’s Mite-——Another coin, translated “mite,” is in 
Greek lepton, “the small one” or the “bit.” It was two of these 
that the widow cast into the treasury, Mark 12 : 42,! where it is 
said that two of them equaled a guadrans. The “‘mite’’ was, then, 
of the value of + of a cent. It was doubtless the smallest coin in 
circulation, but it has not yet been identified with certainty with 
any coin that archeology has discovered. 

(8) The Piece of Silver—tIn Luke 15:8 the Greek drachma is 

1Cf. Luke 21 : 2. 


182 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


mentioned. It is translated “‘piece of silver.” The drachma corre- 
sponded roughly in value to the denarius. Drachmas had been 
issued by many different cities and many different kings, and were 
still in circulation in Palestine in the time of Christ. One still sees 
in that country today coins of the first Napoleon, and of many other 
sovereigns who have been long dead, passing from hand to hand as 
media of value; (see Fig. 194). 

(9) Coinage of the Revolt of 66-70 A. D—Two silver coins, a 
shekel and a half-shekel (see Fig. 201), were formerly attributed to 
Simon the Maccabee. The shekels weigh 212.3 to 217.9 grains and 
bear on their face above a cup or chalice the legend “‘shekel of Israel’ 
and a numeral. The numeral stands for the first year. Examples 
are known which carry the enumeration up to the year “five.” On 
the reverse a triple lily is pictured, and in similar Hebrew characters 
the words ‘“‘Jerusalem, the holy” are inscribed. The half-shekel is 
smaller and has the same markings except that the legend on its 
face is simply “‘half-shekel.”” On the coins issued after the first 
year a Hebrew sh precedes the number of the year. The sh is an 
abbreviation of the Hebrew word shana, year. For various reasons 
the consensus of expert opinion now is that these coins were issued 
during the Jewish war of 66-70 A. D., which, according to Jewish 
reckoning, extended into the fifth year. 

Coins of the Roman Emperors, Augustus and Claudius, are 
shown in Figs. 195, 197. 


CHAPTER XI 


HIGH PLACES AND TEMPLES! 


A SANCTUARY OF THE PRE-SEMITIC CAVE-DWELLERS. A ROCK-ALTAR AT MEGIDDO. 
A ROCK-ALTAR AT JERUSALEM. HicH PLAce at TELL Es-Sart. HiGH PLACE AT 
GEzER: Choice of site. Child-sacrifice. Corrupt worship. At TAANACH: Pillars. 
An altar of incense. Hicu Piacrs at Petra. A SupposED PHILISTINE TEMPLE. AT 
Mecmwwpo: A Hebrew temple. A palace chapel. Another chapel. THe TEMPLE 
TO AUGUSTUS AT SAMARIA. 


1. A Sanctuary of the Pre-Semitic Cave-dwellers.—The oldest 
sanctuary which we can trace in Palestine appears to have been one 
of the caves at Gezer. This cave was 32 feet long, 20 feet broad, 
and 7 feet 11 inches at its maximum height. There were two en- 
trances: one on the east, a tall, narrow doorway, was approached by 
a passage sloping downward; the other, on the west, was a low, nar- 
row passage, Just wide enough to admit a person. At the northern 
end there was a projection in the form of an apse, the floor of which 
was about 2 feet higher than that of the rest of the cave. In the 
roof of this apse there was an opening, about 1 foot wide at the bot- 
tom, leading to the upper air. The rock of the roof here was 3 feet 
5% inches thick. This opening was 2 feet 8 inches in diameter at 
the top, and a channel 4 feet 6 inches long cut in the surface of the 
rock was connected with it. On the surface of the rock above the 
cave and about this channel there were a number of ‘‘cup-marks”’ 
similar to those found near ancient sacred places. Some of these 
were, perhaps, intended for places to set jars, but some of them were 
connected with the channel which emptied into the opening in the 
roof of the cave?; (see Fig. 202). 

The suggestion which the excavator, Prof. Macalister, makes is 
that this was a sanctuary of the cave-dwellers, that they killed 
their victims on the surface of the rock above, and let the blood 
run through the channel and the opening into the cave underneath, 
where their deity was supposed to dwell. They lived in caves them- 
selves, and it was natural for them to think their deity did the same. 


1 The temples of Solomon, Zerubbabel, and Herod are treated in Chapter XIII, on Jerusalem. 
2See Macalister, The Excavation of Gezer, I, 102; II, 378. ff. 
183 


184 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


This suggestion received some confirmation from the fact that on 
the floor of the apse under this opening there were found, upon 
removing a layer of earth, a number of pig bones. The presence 
of these might be accounted for on the supposition that they were 
offered in sacrifice by the cave-dwellers to their deity. Swine were 
unclean to all Semites, and, no doubt, the later Semitic inhabitants 
would have thrown the bones away, if they had ever cleaned out 
the cave sufficiently to discover them. 

2. A Rock-altar at Megiddo.—Another rock-altar of high an- 
tiquity was discovered on the slope of the mound of Tell el-Mutesel- 
lim, the ancient Megiddo.! It was situated on the slope of the tell, 
about half-way down. Its surface was covered with “cup-marks,” 
like those on the altar at Gezer, and an opening about 2% feet wide 
at the top and 13 feet wide at the bottom made it possible for blood 
to trickle down through 3 feet of rock into a cave below. This 
cave contained several rooms, the largest of which was about 
18 feet 6 inches long, 7 feet 8 inches wide, and 8 feet 6 inches high. 
In the most northerly of the rooms were found various implements 
of black flint, potsherds, coals of a wood-fire, the bones of sheep and 
goats, olive-stones, and ashes. In the midst of the central room 
there lay a heap of human bones, the skulls of which were badly 
destroyed. These human bones show that after the cave had been 
used as a sanctuary it was employed as a sepulcher. The same 
thing happened at Gezer and elsewhere; (see Fig. 205). 

3. A Rock-altar at Jerusalem.—We are told in Gen. 22:2 
that Abraham went to the land of Moriah to offer up Isaac, and in 
2 Chron. 3 :1,ff.that Solomon built the temple on Mount Moriah 
on the threshing floor which David acquired from Ornan (Arau- 
nah) the Jebusite. Just to the east of the site of Solomon’s 
temple in the open court where the altar of burnt-offering stood, 
there was a rock surface similar to the two rock-altars described 
above. It is still visible in Jerusalem and is now enclosed in the 
Mosque of Omar. The Mohammedans regard it as a sacred rock. 
One can still trace on it the channels which conducted the blood to 
an opening which in turn conducted it to a cave underneath. This 
cave is still regarded by the Mohammedans as sacred. There is 
little doubt that the sacrificial victims offered in the temples of 
Solomon and Herod were slain on this stone, and that that part 
of the blood not used in sprinkling drained into the cave underneath. 

1See Schumacher, Tell el-Mutesellim, 156, ff. 


HIGH PLACES AND TEMPLES 185 


This rock-altar is on the hill to which we are told Abraham came 
for the sacrifice of Isaac!; (see Fig. 208). 

4. High Place of Tell es-Safi—tIn the Old Testament the “high 
place” is frequently mentioned as a place of worship. (See 1 Sam. 
9:12,f.; 1 Kings 3:2; 2 Kings 23:5, 8, etc.) It follows from 2 
Kings 23 : 14 that these high places contained “pillars” and “ashe- 
rim.” The pillars were made of stone, and the asherim of wood. 

Recent exploration has brought to light a number of these high 
places, and the revelations made by these discoveries greatly il- 
luminate the Old Testament narrative. The first of these was dis- 
covered by Bliss and Macalister at Tell es-Safi.2 The high place 
was enclosed by walls, but, as the upper courses of these had been 
destroyed, the original height of the walls could not be determined. 
Within the largest enclosure stood three monoliths or “pillars.” 
These rested on bases of stone. The pillars themselves were, re- 
spectively, 5 feet 10 inches, 6 feet 5 inches, and 7 feet 1 inch high. 
One of them was pointed, and one of them almost flat on the top. 
No tool-mark was discernible on any of them. All showed signs 
of having been rubbed. The fat and the blood of sacrifices were 
smeared over such stones, and the rubbing was probably produced 
by this. The walls enclosing these pillars formed an approximate 
square 30 feet from east to west and 32 feet from north to south. 
On the north a fairly large room was walled in, as shown in F ig. 212, 
and on the south three smaller rooms. In the wall to the north of 
the three pillars was a semicircular apse. Facing this apse was a 
low semicircle of stones 3 feet 7 inches in diameter, which is situated 
much nearer the “pillars.” The purpose of this semicircle is un- 
known. In the east wall of the court of the high place there was a 
“skewed” opening, or an opening which ran diagonally through the 
wall. The purpose of this is obscure. It has been suggested by 
Prof. Macalister that it was made to permit the rising sun to shine 
on a certain spot of the interior on a certain day of the year, but of 
this there is no proof. 

S. High Place of Gezer—The foundations of this high place 
were in the second stratum below that which contained Israelitish 
pottery. It was one of the high places of the Canaanites, therefore, 
or of one of the tribes that were in Palestine before the coming of 


1In Gen. 22 : 9 Abraham, we are told, built the altar. He did not, therefore, intend to use the 
rock-altar. The analogy of this altar with the other two is not quite complete. It appears to 
have no cup-marks on its surface. 

* See Bliss and Macalister, Excavations in Palestine, 1898-1 900, p. 31, ff. 


186 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Israel. This is the most interesting of the high places which 
have been discovered in Palestine.! It contained ten monoliths 
or upright “pillars,” the tallest of which was 10 feet 9 inches in 
height, and the shortest 5 feet 5 inches. These pillars ran in a 
curved line the general direction of which was from north to 
south. This was in striking contrast to the high place of Tell 
es-Safi, where the line of pillars ran from east to west. The center 
of the curved line of the pillars of Gezer was toward the east. All 
of these pillars except one were of the kind of stone abundant 
about Gezer. They had been found near by. None of them bore 
the mark of a tool. They had not been shaped by working. One 
of them (the one that was the sacred stone, as the smooth spots on 
it showed) was a different kind of stone—the kind found at Jeru- 
salem and elsewhere, but not near Gezer. There were on it traces 
of an indentation, as though a rope for dragging it might have 
been fitted around it; (Fig. 206). As Mesha, King of Moab, tells 
us twice in his inscription that he dragged altar-hearths of other 
deities away from their original locations into the presence of his 
god Chemosh,? it seems likely that this stone was dragged to Gezer 
from some other sanctuary—possibly from Jerusalem. Perhaps it 
was its capture that first suggested to the inhabitants of Gezer the 
establishment of this high place. The other stones of the series 
were erected to keep this one company and to do it honor. These 
were probably not all set up at once. They were added from time 
to time by different rulers of Gezer, and we have no means of know- 
ing when the latest of the pillars was erected; (see Fig. 204). 

(1) Choice of Site-——Judging from the scarabs found about the 
foundations of the high place, its beginnings date from 2000 B. c. or 
earlier, and it continued in use down to the Babylonian Exile. 
Curiously enough, this high place is not situated on the highest part 
of the hill. The land.is higher both to the east and to the west of it. 
It is situated in a sort of saddle to the east of the middle of the 
mound. Why was this spot chosen for it? Two considerations, 
perhaps, led to the choice of the site. A great ramifying cave on a 
higher part of the hill had already been appropriated by Semites as a 
sepulcher, and was, therefore, unclean. The cave which the earlier 
inhabitants had used as a crematorium was for the same reason un- 
acceptable. Why the high place was not built near the cave that 


1See Macalister, The Excavation of Geser, 1, 51, 105-107; II, 381-404. 
2See Part II, p. 422. 


HIGH PLACES AND TEMPLES 187 


the cave-dwellers had used as a temple, we cannot now conjecture. 
Perhaps in some way the memory that that had been a sacred 
spot had faded from men’s minds. Macalister thinks that the 
choice of the site was determined by the presence at this point of the 
two caves shown in Fig. 203. These caves had been dwellings of 
cave-men in the pre-Semitic time. They were now connected by a 
narrow, crooked passage, so that they could be utilized for the giving 
of oracles. Macalister conjectures that a priest or priestess would go 
into one, while the devotee who wished to inquire of the god was sent 
into the other, and that the inquirer would hear his oracle through 
this passage. This theoryis plausible, though incapable of full proof. 

Just back of one of the pillars a square stone was found with a 
deep hole cut in its upper side; (see Fig. 209). Several theories 
as to the use of this have been put forward; the most probable 
one is that it was a laver. 

The area of the high place seems to have been approximately 
150 feet from north to south and 120 feet from east to west. Some 
few walls were found of the same date as the high place, but it was 
impossible to tell their purpose. There seem to have been no 
buildings that could be regarded as a part of the sanctuary. It 
seems to have been entirely open to the air. Two circular struc- 
tures, one at the north and the other to the south of the sacred 
stones, were found. The one at the south was badly ruined; that 
to the north was in a good state of preservation. This structure had 
a pavement of stones on a level with the bottom of the sacred pillars. 
It was entirely surrounded by a wall 2 feet thick at the bottom and 
1 foot 6 inches thick at the top and 6 feet high. There was no 
doorway. The wall leaned outward. The diameter of the struc- 
ture was 13 feet 8 inches at the bottom and 16 feet 6 inches at the 
top; (see Fig. 207). On the pavement in this enclosure were the 
fragments of many clay bowls, of a type found in Cyprus, but 
common at Gezer from 1400-800 B. c., and among these fragments 
a brazen serpent, evidently the model of a cobra. This discovery 
suggests the possibility that the structure may have been a pen in 
which sacred serpents were kept. The practice of venerating ser- 
pents as sacred is found in many parts of the world.!. This brazen 
serpent reminds one of Nehushtan, the brazen serpent worshiped by 
the Judzans until it was destroyed by King Hezekiah. (See 2 
Kings 18 : 4, and Fig. 2192.) 


1See C. H. Toy, Introduction to the History of Religions, Boston, 1913, §§ 250, 257. 


188 ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


(2) Child-sacrifice—The whole area of the high place was found 
to be a cemetery of new-born infants. These were in all probability 
first-born children who had been sacrificed to the deity of the high 
place. Two of them displayed marks of fire, but most of them had 
been simply enclosed in large jars. The body was usually put in 
head first. Two or three smaller vessels were put in with them. 
These generally included a bowl and a jug. They were usually in- 
side the jar between the body and the jar’s mouth; sometimes they 
were outside near the mouth of the jar. That these were sacrifices 
is shown by the fact that they were children. It was not, therefore, 
a general place of burial. Indeed, had these children not been 
sacrificial, they could not have been buried in the sanctuary, as 
dead bodies were unclean. 

The Semites generally believed that the first-born were sacred to 
deity and must be sacrificed to it. This sort of human sacrifice 
persisted for a long time among the Phcenicians. It was said that 
God called Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, and that he then permitted 
him to offer a ram instead (Gen. 22). The law provided for the 
redemption of Hebrew first-born by the sacrifice of a lamb (Exod. 
34 : 20), but in the time of King Manasseh the old custom was 
revived and men ‘made their children pass through the fire.” 
(See 2 Kings 21:6; 23:10; Jer. 7:31; 32:35.) The gruesome 
discoveries of this high place have made very real these horrible 
practices and the inhuman fate from which Isaac and other Hebrew 
children were delivered. | 

With the exception of a little unhewn stone about 18 inches 
square, found in one of the caves connected with the high place, and 
which might possibly have served as an altar, no altar was found. 
Possibly none was needed in the rites practised there, but it is more 
likely that the altar was simply a mound of earth such as is pre- 
scribed in Exod. 20: 24—a mound which could not be distinguished, 
in excavating, from the common earth. 

(3) Corrupt Worship.—Of the nature of some of the services that 
went on in this high place in the name of Ashtoreth eloquent testi- 
mony was borne by unnumbered Ashtoreth-plaques that had been 
presented as votive offerings by the worshipers. ‘These varied in 
form and in artistic merit, but were all designed to foster in the 
worshiper that type of debasing service described in Isa. 57 : 3, ff., 
as Fig. 214 shows. Symbols of this nature were abundant during 
all the period while the high place was in use. No one who was 


HIGH PLACES AND TEMPLES 189 


not, like the writer, at Gezer during the excavation, can realize how 
demoralizing the whole atmosphere of such worship must have 
been. Archeology has here revealed to us in a most vivid way the 
tremendous power of those corrupting religious influences which the 
Hebrew prophets so vigorously denounced. These practices were 
deeply rooted in the customs of the Canaanites; they were sanctified 
by a supposed divine sanction of immemorial antiquity, and they 
made an all-powerful appeal to the animal instincts in human 
nature. Wecan realize now as never before the social and religious 
task which confronted the prophets. That Israel was by prophetic 
teaching purged of this cult is due to the power of God! 

6. At Taanach. 

(1) Pillars.—Sellin! discovered two monoliths which he believed 
to be the pillars of a high place. These stones’ had, however, 
been hewn, which does not accord with the general Semitic re- 
quirement that no tool should be lifted up upon such stones; 
(see Fig. 211). However, the indentation in one of the sacred 
stones of Gezer, apparently made to keep a rope from slipping, 
shows that exceptions to the rule against cutting a sacred stone 
were allowed. The two pillars at Taanach were situated over a 
cave and figures of Ashtoreth were found in connection with them, 
so that they probably constituted another high place. The stratum 
in which this was found proves that it belongs to the same period 
as the high place at Gezer. In connection with this high place an 
interesting libation bowl was found which is shown in Fig. 213. 

(2) An Altar of Incense—In another part of the mound at 
Taanach Sellin discovered a remarkable incense altar of terra-cotta, 
3 feet in height, and 18 inches in diameter at the base, adorned 
with protruding animal heads, which remind one of shortened 
gargoyles. On one side of it was the figure of a palm-tree, with 
two ibexes descending a mountain. Part of an Ashtoreth figure 
and fragments of another altar were found near. Sellin thought 
that the building that contained these was a private house, and, 
if so, we have in these objects some of the implements of private 
worship employed by Israelites; (see Fig. 210). 

7. High Places at Petra.—One of the most interesting high places 
is cut out of the solid rock at Petra. Petra may possibly be the 
Sela of 2 Kings 14:7, since Sela means “crag” or “rock’’ in 
Hebrew, and Petra has the same meaning in Greek. The iden- 

1 Tell Taanek, p. 68, ff. 


190 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


tity of Petra with Sela is not, however, certain. Petra lies in 
the southeastern part of ancient Edom, and was, before the end of 
the fourth century B. C., occupied by the Nabathzans, a Semitic 
tribe. These Nabatheans established a kingdom which continued 
until 106 A. p. One of its kings, Haretat IV, is called Aretas in 
2 Cor. 11:32.1 When the Roman Emperor Trajan overthrew this 
kingdom he organized its territory into the Province of Arabia, and 
the beautiful buildings, the remains of which make Petra such an 
interesting ruin today, date mostly from the Roman period of its 
history. During the Nabathzan period of Petra they constructed 
three high places, which are high places indeed, since they are 
perched on ledges of rock above the ancient town. The largest of 
these high places is still in an excellent state of preservation. It 
is a little to the north of the citadel on a ledge which rises about 
700 feet above the town. ‘The ledge is 520 feet long by 90 feet 
wide; it runs nearly north and south with a slight inclination to the 
east.?, The principal features of this ancient place of worship are an 
altar on the west side of the ledge, a platform immediately south of 
this, a large sunken area directly in front of the altar, and a little to 
the south of this area a vat or laver. 

This high place is approached by a flight of steps cut in the solid 
rock; (see Fig. 215). The main area, which corresponds to the 
enclosure of the high place at Tell es-Safi, is 47 feet 4 inches long, 
24 feet 4 inches wide, and 15 to 18 inches deep, though this depth is 
not uniform. In some parts it falls to 10 inches. About midway 
of the length of this area and 5 feet from its west side, there is a 
rock platform 5 feet in length, 2 feet 7% inches wide, and 4 inches" 
high. It has been suggested that this platform was intended for 
the offerer of a victim to stand upon, in order that he might be 
distinguished from other worshipers who were crowding the area. 
Another possible view is that the sacred “pillars” stood upon this 
platform. No pillars were found in connection with it. Probably 
such pillars were not cut out of the solid rock, but were, like the 
sacred stone of Gezer, brought from elsewhere. The arrangement 
of other high places would indicate that they stood on or near this 
platform. As this high place was not buried, but exposed on the 


1See Part II, p. 512. 

2 For descriptions of this high place, see the article by its discoverer, George L. Robinson, in the 
Biblical World, XVII, 6-16; by S. I. Curtis in the Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Exploration 
Fund, October, 1900, pp. 350-355; Savignac in Révue biblique, 1903, 280-284; Libby and Hoskins, 
The Jordan Valley and Petra, New York, 1905, II, 172, ff.; Briinnow and Domaszewski, Provincia 
Arabia, Vol. I, Strassburg, 1904, 239-245; Dalman, Petra, Leipzig, 1908, 56-58. 


HIGH PLACES AND TEMPLES 191 


mountain top, such pillars have in the course of the ages disappeared. 
The altar is separated from the adjoining rock by a passageway 
which was cut on its north, south, and west sides. It is of the 
same height as the adjoining rock. On the east the ledge has been 
cut down to the level of the foot of the altar. The altar is 9 feet 1 
inch in length from north to south and 6 feet 2 inches wide. It is 
3 feet high at its highest point. On the top of the altar is a hollow 
pan, perhaps to receive the fire. This is 3 feet 8 inches long, 1 foot 
2 inches wide, and 3% inches deep. Ascent to the altar was made 
by a flight of steps leading up to its top on the east side. The top 
step is wider than the others and forms a platform on which the 
officiating priest might stand; (see Fig. 217). 

Just south of the altar and separated from it by the passageway 
was the place where the victims were slain. This has been called 
the round altar; (see Fig. 218). This consists of a platform 16 
feet 6 inches long from east to west, 11 feet 9 inches wide. It is 
approached by a flight of steps. Near its center are two circular 
and concentric pans, the larger 3 feet 8 inches in diameter with a 
depth of 3 inches, the smaller 1 foot 5 inches in diameter with a 
depth of 2 inches. From this inner basin a conduit 3 feet 2 inches 
Jong, 2 inches wide, and 3 inches deep conducted the blood to the 
edge of the platform. This platform was undoubtedly intended for 
the place of slaughter. The Samaritans, when they assemble on 
Mount Gerizim for the celebration of the Passover, still dig a round 
hole in the turf, over which to slay the victim. This hole is about 
18 inches in diameter and 10 inches deep. From it a conduit is dug, 
through which the blood flows off to be absorbed by the earth. 

The supposed laver at Petra is to the south of the area of the 
high place. It is 9 feet 9 inches in length and 8 feet 6 inches in 
width. It is now partially filled with earth, and has above the 
earth an average depth of 3 feet. 

The remains of three other supposed high places have been found 
at Petra, but lack of space forbids their description here.2 The 
pillars supposed to have been connected with one of them are 
shown in Fig. 219. 

8. A Supposed Philistine Temple.—Turning now to Palestinian 
temples: Macalister discovered the remains of a building at Gezer 


1See the writer’s A Year’s Wandering in Bible Lands, Philadelphia, 1904, pp. 193, 194. 
? Those interested in them will find them described in Briinnow and Domaszewski’s Provincia 
Arabia, I, 246, ff., and in Dalman’s Petra, 142, 225, 272, etc. 


192 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


which he thinks may have been a temple.! This building belonged 
to the third Semitic stratum; in other words, to the period just be- 
fore the coming of the Israelites. A general plan of its walls is 
shown in Fig. 220. In a court in one part of the structure were 
five pillars which may have had the same religious significance 
as the pillars of the high place. The two circular structures 
ff remind one of the circular structures of the high place of 
Gezer. These were filled with the fragments of the bones of sheep 
and goats. As these bore no marks of cooking, they could not have 
been mere domestic ash-pits, and it is plausible to think of them as 
receptacles for the bodies of slaughtered victims. In a forecourt of 
the structure a line of bases, apparently intended for the support 
of columns, was found. Macalister conjectured that these sup- 
ported a roof over a part of the portico, and it reminded him of the 
story of Samson in the temple of Dagon. (See Judges 16 : 23-30.) 
It is quite possible that the feast of Dagon described in Judges 16 
may have been held in a structure similar to this, that the lords of 
the Philistines may have been gathered in such a porch, and that 
Samson may have pulled such pillars as rested upon these bases from 
under the roof that sheltered them, and caused their destruction 

and his own death. It is all possible, but conjectural. 

9. At Megiddo. 

(1) A Hebrew Temple—In the course of the excavation at 
Megiddo a temple was found concerning the sacred nature of 
which there can be no such doubts as in the case of the build- 
ing just mentioned’; (Fig. 222). This temple was in the Israel- 
itish stratum, and so is of especial interest to the students of 
the Bible. It was situated in the highest part of the city. The 
whole space was not excavated, but the portion uncovered was 
131 feet long and 115 wide. It was of the same period as the 
palace in which the seal of Shema the servant of Jeroboam was 
found, and contained more drafted stones than the walls of that 
palace. In one of the rooms of the temple stood two stones that 
were certainly “pillars” such as are denounced in Deuteronomy. 
One of these was 7 feet 8 inches high; the other, 7 feet high. The 
room in which these pillars stood was 30 feet long and 10 feet 7 
inches wide. In building the wall of this temple a stone was used 
that had once formed the voluted capital of a column; (Fig. 224). 
Probably this stone was taken from an earlier Philistine building. 

1See Macalister, Excavation of Gezer, II, 405, ff. 2 Schumacher, Tell el-Mutesellim, 110-124. 


HIGH PLACES AND TEMPLES 193 


In the grounds of the temple, which were once regarded as holy, 
several jars containing the skeletons of children were unearthed. 
These had apparently been offered in sacrifice and buried like those 
found in the high place of Gezer. 

While the walls of this temple were built of larger and more care- 
fully cut stones than most of the other walls in the city, no effort 
seems to have been made to give the temple a definite architectural 
plan. Large towers were found near it, but, as the temple was at 
the east end of the city, these formed part of fortifications. The 
fortifications and other buildings crowded upon the temple, so 
that, had an effort been made to make it architecturally imposing, 
the effect would have been lost. 

(2) A Palace Chapel_—The people of Megiddo seem to have been 
particularly fond of the type of worship represented by this temple, 
for in a room to the east of the palace of the Hebrew governor was a 
room containing three “‘pillars,”’ in which the remains of a number of 
terra-cotta goddesses were found. This was apparently the pri- 
vate chapel of the palace. This room was almost 40 feet long and 32 
feet 10 inches wide; (Fig. 223). Its beginnings antedate the Israel- 
itish period, since they come from the stratum before the conquest. 

(3) Another Chapel.—What seems to have been still another 
place of worship equipped with the necessary “pillars” was found in 
the Hebrew stratum between the governor’s palace and the southern 
gate of the city. It would appear from the connecting walls that 
this sacred place may also have been intended for the special use of 
the occupants of the palace. This room was not quite 30 feet long 
and a little less than 20 feet wide. It contained six stones which Dr. 
Schumacher took to be “pillars.” Like those at Petra and Taanach, 
they had evidently been shaped with tools. They did not stand 
in a row or in any regular relation to one another. This might 
throw some doubt upon the religious significance of the stones, 
Could they not have been columns used in supporting the roof 
of the building? Since a small stone object that had religious 
significance in the high places was found in this room, together 
with a most remarkable incense burner, it is probable that these 
were religious “pillars” and that the room was a little chapel. 
The object was of limestone and about 7 inches long. It was lying 
at the foot of one of the “pillars.” The incense burner was made of 
a greyish soft limestone. It was a little over 9 inches in height. 

1 Schumacher, Tell el-Mutesellim, 105-110. 2 Ibid., 125-130. 


194. ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


The diameter of the bow! was 62 inches. The stone was cut so that 
the bowl rested on a pedestal, which was divided by rings into two 
portions, each of which was cut so as to represent a circle of over- 
hanging leaves; (see Fig. 225). The whole was decorated with 
reddish-brown and cobalt-blue paints. The decoration of the rim 
of the bowl is a geometrical design, that on the bowl itself repre- 
sents a sort of conventionalized lily blossom, while the leaves sug- 
gest those of the palm. 

These discoveries make it plain that the Canaanite temples of 
Palestine, which the Hebrews took over, were simply high places in 
miniature, enclosed in walls and probably roofed over, though the 
roofs have disappeared. The feeling that led to the change from the 
open air high place was the same as that underlying the saying of 
David: “I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth 
within curtains” (2 Sam. 7 : 2). 

10. The Temple to Augustus at Samaria.—The excavations at 
Samaria! have brought to light the foundation of the temple erected 
by Herod the Great in honor of Augustus.” This was a temple 
of a very different type. It was patterned on Greco-Roman models 
and everything was done to make it architecturally impressive. 
Unfortunately, the results of the Harvard expedition have not yet 
been given to the public in detail, but from the imposing stairway, 
discovered during the first season of the excavation, together with 
the partial plan of the building as then uncovered, and the outlines 
of its walls as a later season’s work disclosed them, one can form 
some idea of the imposing appearance of this structure. A massive 
stairway led up to a large platform surrounded by large pillars. 
This formed the portico. Back of this stretched the walls of the 
temple. The general form of the building seems to have been 
similar to that of the large temple at Jerash, which will be described 
in Chapter XIV.* At the foot of the stairway leading up to the 
temple was found a large altar, and near this a fallen statue of 
Augustus. For outlines of the temple, see Figs. 216 and 221. 

These ancient places of worship which archeology has brought to 
light are eloquent witnesses of the pathetic way the men of Pales- 
tine “felt after God, if haply they might find him” (Acts 17 : 27), 
and the pathos is not lessened by the fact that they thus continued 


to grope, even after the clearer light was shining about them. 
1See Harvard Theological Review, II, 102-113; III, 248-263. 
2 See Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XV, viii, 5, and Wars of the Jews, I, xxi, 2. 
3 See especially Fig. 269. 


CHAPTER XII 


THE TOMBS OF PALESTINE 


BURNING THE DEAD. Cave BURIALS. CISTERN BuRIAL. BURIAL UNDER MENBIRS. 
EARTH-GRAVES. ROoCK-HEWN SHAFT Tomss. Doorway Tomps. Tomps WITH A 
ROLLING-STONE. 


1. Burning the Dead.—As noted in a previous chapter,! the cave- 
dwellers of Gezer burned their dead. The Semitic inhabitants of 
Palestine did not follow this custom, but buried theirs. At Gezer 
the caves that had formed the dwellings of the first inhabitants were 
put by the Semites to various uses. Sometimes they, too, lived in 
them; sometimes they made cisterns of them; and sometimes they 
utilized them as places of burial for their dead. 

2. Cave Burials.—A cave that became a tomb after the Semitic 
occupation was the one that had been the crematorium of the 
pre-Semitic inhabitants.” All over the floor of the cave above the 
burned bones was another stratum of bones that had never been 
burned. These were scattered over the floor of the cave, and, al- 
though they had been much disturbed by rats, it appeared that they 
belonged to that early type of burial in which the body is placed on 
its side with the knees drawn up toward the chin. ‘These bodies 
had apparently been deposited in all parts of the cave. Ranged 
around the sides of the cave was a series of enclosures marked off 
from the floor by lines of stones. In these, portions of various 
skeletons were found. These enclosures seem to have been reserva- 
tions made for persons of distinction. For a time, therefore, the 
cave seems to have been used as a general place of burial. In some 
of the other caves of Gezer evidence was found that they had been 
used as tombs.* Beautiful pottery and alabaster vessels were 
found with the bones. Wine and possibly food for the dead had 
been placed in these. Underneath the pottery in one cave a con- 
siderable number of scarabs were found, some of them mounted in 


1See Chapter V, p. 120. 
2 See Macalister, Excavation of Gezer, I, 286. 
3 Tbid., p. 122, f. 


195 


196 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


gold. This must have been, accordingly, the burial place of persons 
of comparative wealth. Similar cave burials were found by Mac- 
kenzie at Beth-shemesh.? 

Such cave burials as these at once recall Abraham’s purchase of 
the cave of Machpelah as recorded in Gen. 23. The kind of 
burial presupposed in that chapter is just that found at Gezer. 
The mouth of the cave could be closed up and opened at will for 
later burials. (See Gen. 50: 13.) 

The custom of placing food or drink or both in the sepulcher was 
all but universal in Palestine. It is silent testimony to a faith in a 
kind of after-life. That that life as they conceived it was of a 
shadowy and an unsatisfactory nature is shown by the references 
to it in Isa. 14: 9-11 and Ezek. 32 : 22-32.2 Nevertheless, these 
evidences that the mourners who stood by every ancient tomb 
provided food for their loved ones to eat in the after-life is elo- 
quent testimony to the fact that even in that age the loving 
heart found it impossible to believe that the life of its dear ones 
had been altogether terminated. 

3. Cistern Burial.—Another burial at Gezer that must have been 
connected with some unusual circumstance led to the deposit of 
fifteen bodies in a cistern,? and a number of spear heads were found 
with them. The skeletons were all males except .one, which 
was that of a girl about sixteen years old, whose spine had been 
severed and only the upper part of the skeleton deposited in the 
cistern; (see Fig. 229). The cistern is too deep to favor the sup- 
position that the bodies had been deposited at successive times. 
Macalister hazards the conjecture that the men died of plague 
and that the girl was offered as a sacrifice to propitiate the 
deity. A plague, however, would have attacked women as well 
as men. Perhaps the men were slain in defending Gezer from 
the attack of an enemy that had succeeded in severing the body 
of the girl. The real cause of the tragedy is, however, unknown 
to us. 

4. Burial under Menhirs.—A very old form of burial, still prac- 
tised by the half-nomadic tribes east of the Jordan, is to place the 
dead in the earth within one of the prehistoric gi/gals or menhirs. 
How old this form of burial is, it is impossible to tell. It is assumed 


1 Palestine Exploration Fund’s Annual, II, 42, ff. 
2 For a Babylonian parallel, see Part II, p. 487, ff. 
3 See Macalister, Excavation of Gezer, Il, 429, f. 


SS - 


THE TOMBS OF PALESTINE 197 


by some writers that it was practised by the neolithic people who 
erected these monuments, and who are believed by such writers to 
have been ancestor worshipers. If, however, these neolithic men 
were akin to the neolithic cave-dwellers of Gezer, they burned their 
dead. Another explanation is, accordingly, more probable. All 
through the history of Palestine the sanctity of certain spots has 
persisted. A place once considered as holy, if not so regarded by 
the next wave of conquerors, nevertheless often has enough sanctity 
clinging to it to make it taboo. No thief will disturb objects left 
within its precincts, lest the spirit of the place bring disaster upon 
him. It seems probable that the wandering tribes on the border of 
the Arabian Desert have utilized the sacred places of these pre- 
historic men for the burial of their dead, in order that the fear of 
violating the taboo pertaining to these places may secure the bodies 
from disturbance. Whatever the reason may be, they still bury 
their dead in such precincts and place their tribal wasms or marks on 
such stones.! 

5. Earth-graves.—The simplest form of burial was to place the 
body in the ground without accessory of any kind. In the course 
of the excavation of Gezer a few burials of this sort came to light.? 
The skeleton was in these cases stretched out; sometimes it was ly- 
ing on its back; sometimes on its side. As these bodies were buried 
without accessories, so contrary to the custom of the Palestinians 
who placed food or drink by the dead, the excavator thought that 
they were probably the graves of murdered persons, who had been 
hastily concealed in the earth. 

Another form of burial, when the interment occurred within a 
city, is illustrated by the five “Philistine” graves found at Gezer. 
These graves were excavations in the earth, lined with cement, and, 
after the interment, covered with four or five massive stones 
and earth; (Fig. 226). In these graves the usual deposits of food 
and drink had been made in beautiful bronze and silver vessels, 
which show kinship to the art of Cyprus; (see Fig. 137). They 
are probably, therefore, Philistine. 

6. Rock-hewn Shaft Tombs.—A form of tomb of which many 
examples are to be found in all parts of Palestine is the rock-hewn 
tomb. The limestone of the country is easily cut, and lends itself 


1See Biblical World, Vol. XXIV, p. 177. 
2 See Macalister, Excavation of Gezer, I, 288, f. 
8 Tbid., 289, ff. 


198 ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


readily to the construction of this kind of burial-place. Such 
tombs are of two kinds—“shaft” tombs and “doorway” tombs. 

The structure of a shaft tomb is as follows:! The tomb chamber 
or chambers are cut in the rock and are approached by a perpen- 
dicular rock-hewn shaft, which is usually rectangular. This shaft 
is closed at the bottom with slabs and then the shaft is filled with 
earth. Such tombs are usually constructed in ledges covered over 
with soil, so that, when the hole leading to the rock-cut shaft is 
filled, the tomb is effectually concealed. Such tombs are very 
numerous all the way from pre-Israelitish times to the Greek period. 
For a plan of one, see Fig. 228. 

7. Doorway Tombs.—The “doorway” tombs are sometimes cut 
in a ledge that is altogether under ground. In that case a flight of 
steps is excavated leading down to the door; (Fig. 232). Often 
the tomb is cut in a ledge on the slope of a hill, so that the 
doorway is approached from the level of the ground; (see Fig. 227). 
Doors were, no doubt, fitted into the doorways. ‘The places cut in 
the rock for the latches or bars of such doors are sometimes still 
visible. These tombs consisted sometimes of one room, sometimes 
of several. Sometimes the bodies were laid on the floor of the 
tomb; sometimes elevated benches or shelves were cut in the rock 
on which bodies might be placed. Quite as often shafts or niches 
were cut into the rock, into which a body or a sarcophagus could be 
shoved endwise. Such a shaft is called technically a kék, in the 
plural, kékim. For examples of them, see Figs. 233,237. The date 
at which this kind of tomb was introduced has not been satisfac- 
torily determined. 

Sometimes numerous small tombs, each one resembling some- 
what a kék, were cut ina hillside. Archzologists call such a group 
of tombs a “columbarium’”’; (see Fig. 230). 

In the Hellenistic and Roman periods efforts were made to give 
adornment to such tombs. The so-called “Tombs of the Judges’’? 
near Jerusalem, of which the writer was the first to make a scientific 
examination, is a good example of this kind of tomb*; (see Fig. 231). 
This tomb consisted of three rooms in its upper level and three in 
its lower level; (see Fig. 235). The ledges and kékim in it made 
provision for seventy bodies, and a rough chamber opening out of 


1 See Bliss and Macalister, Excavations in Palestine, 1898-1900, p. 9, ff. 

2 So called because of a tradition that the members of the Sanhedrin were buried there. The 
tradition probably arose because the kékim and shelves make provision for seventy bodies. 

3 See Journal of Biblical Literature, XXII, 1903, p. 164, ff. 


= ee ea 


THE TOMBS OF PALESTINE 199 


room D was evidently used for the deposit of the bones of those 
who had been long dead, when a niche or kék was needed for the 
reception of another body. Sometimes the pillars of a porch were 
carved out of the solid rock. A number of such tombs are to be 
found near Jerusalem. There is one in the Kidron Valley near 
Gethsemane, cut wholly out of the rock and finished to a spire 
at the top. This is the so-called “‘Absalom’s pillar.” 

In the time of Christ the tombs of Israel’s heroes were adorned 
and venerated. Jesus alludes to this in Luke 11 : 47, 48. Elisha 
must have been buried in a doorway tomb, into which by opening 
the door the body of a man could be easily thrown. (See 2 Kings 
13:20, 21.) It was, no doubt, the memory of such narratives as 
this that led to the reverence paid to the tombs of the prophets in 
the time of Christ. 

Another tomb at Jerusalem, called the “Tombs of the Kings,” has 
a large open court cut down into the rock, from the different sides 
of which entrances lead to the other tomb chambers. This tomb 
was built for Queen Helena of Adiabene, the ancient Assyria, who, 
in the days of Herod the Great, was converted to Judaism and re- 
moved to Jerusalem. She died and was buried there.! 

Sometimes in the Seleucid period the interior of the tombs was 
also made very ornate. Such were the tombs, discovered in 1902,? 
of some wealthy Greek-speaking citizens of Marissa. A plan of 
one of them is shown in Fig. 234, and examples of its inner 
ornamentation in Fig. 236. These tombs were also adorned with 
pictures of vases, trees, animals, etc.; (see Fig. 239). The figures, 
as well as the interior generally, were decorated with red, yellow, 
and brown paints. One of them was that of Apollophanes, chief 
of the Sidonians at Marissa. Over the different niches in the 
tombs the names of the persons buried were inscribed in Greek 
letters. 

Rock-cut tombs, whether large or small, were regarded as im- 
portant possessions, and the people who might be buried in them 
were frequently carefully specified by their builders. An example 
of this may be found in Part II of the present work, p. 512. 

8. Tombs with a Rolling-stone.—One other type of tomb must 
be noticed even in this hasty sketch. To close a “doorway” 
tomb securely must always have been a matter of difficulty in Pales- 


1See Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XX, ii, 1; iv, 3. 
1 See Peters and Thiersch, Painted Tombs at Marissa, London, 1905. 


200 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


tine. It was not easy with the kind of locks they had to keep in- 
truders out of tombs. This led to the cutting of a large groove by 
the side of the doorway into which a rolling-stone was fitted. When 
it was desired to open the tomb, the stone could be rolled back. 
The stones were too heavy to be easily disturbed. It was in a new 
tomb of this type that the body of Jesus was laid, and it was such a 
stone that the women found rolled away on the resurrection morn- 
ing. (See Matt. 28:2; Mark 16:3, 4; Luke 24:2; John 20:1, 
and Fig. 238.) 


CHAPTER XIII 


JERUSALEM! 


SITUATION. GrHON. CAVE-DWELLERS. THE EL-AMARNA PERIOD. JEBUSITE JERU- 
SALEM. THE City oF Davm: Millo. David’s reign. Soztomon’s JERUSALEM: Site 
of Solomon’s buildings. Solomon’s temple. Solomon’s palace. From SoLoMON TO 
HEZEKIAH. HezeKIAH. From HEzEKIAH TO THE EXILE. THE DESTRUCTION OF 
586 B.c. THE SECOND TEMPLE. NEHEMIAH AND THE WALLS. LATE PERSIAN AND 
Earty GREEK Periops. IN THE TIME OF THE MACCABEES. ASMONEAN JERUSALEM. 
Herop THE Great: Herod’s palace. Herod’s theater. Herod’s temple. Tur Poor 
OF BETHESDA. GETHSEMANE. CALVARY. AGRIPPA I AND THE THIRD WALL. 


1. Situation.—Since 1867 excavations have been made at Jeru- 
salem from time to time. The most important of these were 
mentioned in Chapter IV. An attempt will be made here to set 
before the reader the growth and development of Jerusalem from 
period to period, as that growth is now understood by foremost 
scholars. Our knowledge of the situation and form of the city in 
the different periods is based partly on formal excavations, partly 
on remains that have been accidentally found, and partly ona study 
of the references to Jerusalem in the Bible and other ancient writ- 
ings. These references are interpreted in the light of the topog- 
raphy and of the archeological remains. 

Jerusalem is situated on the central ridge of Palestine, where 
the ridge broadens out to a small plateau. The plateau at this 
point is approximately 2,500 feet above the level of the Mediter- 
ranean Sea. In a narrower sense the site of the city is two rocky 
promontories which run south from the plateau with the valley 
El-Wad (in Roman times the Tyropceon) between them. On the 
north these promontories merge into the plateau, but on the east, 
south, and west: the valleys of Hinnom and the Kidron sharply 
separate them from the surrounding land. The steep sides of these 
valleys made fortification easy in ancient times. The highest 
point of the western hill is about 400 feet higher than the bottom of 
the Kidron valley, which in ancient times was 20 to 40 feet deeper 

1 All who can do so should read George Adam Smith’s Jerusalem trom the Earliest Times to 


A. D.70, New York, 1908, and Hughes Vincent’s J erusalem, Paris, 1912. Or, if this is not possible, 
L. B. Paton’s Jerusalem in Bible T. times, Chicago, 1905. 
201 


202 ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


than now; (see Fig. 240). Indeed, the position was almost im- 
pregnable. Only on the north was the city vulnerable. 

West of the city hills gently rise to a slight elevation and shut 
out the view. The easternmost of the two promontories is lower 
than the western, which in its turn slopes to the east. Just south 
of the Mount of Olives, to the east of Jerusalem, there is a rift in the 
hills through which the distant mountains of Moab can be seen. 
From elevated buildings in the city the Dead Sea is also visible. 
The slope of the hills of Jerusalem and her broader outlook to the 
eastward are significant of the influences that moulded her earlier 
history. During the centuries that Israel was an independent 
nation the Philistine plain was nearly always in the hands of a 
hostile people. Jerusalem was thus cut off from influences that 
might otherwise have reached her from across the Mediterranean, 
and was shut up to influences that reached her through kindred 
tribes and nations to the east. Thus in intellectual kinship, as well 
as in physical outlook, the gaze of Jerusalem was directed toward 
the Orient. 

All Palestinian cities of importance were situated near per- 
petual springs. There are at Jerusalem but two unfailing sources 
of water—the Ain Sitti Miriam (the ancient Gihon) and the Bir 
Eyyub (Biblical En-rogel). These are both in the Kidron valley, 
the former just under the brow of the eastern hill some 400 yards 
from the southern point of the hill, the latter at the point where the 
valley of Hinnom and the Kidron unite. Of these two sources of 
supply, the Gihon is pre-eminently fitted to attract an early settle- 
ment. It is almost under the hill, whereas the other is out in the 
midst of the open valley. Gihon, too, is at the base of a hill that 
can be defended easily on three sides, whereas a town built on a 
hillside above En-rogel, as the modern Silwan is, could be easily 
attacked from above. These conditions determined the situation 
of the earliest settlement, which was near Gihon. 

2. Gihon.—The Parker expedition of 1909-1911 revealed by its 
excavations the fact that the source of the spring of Gihon is a 
great crack in the rock in the bottom of the valley far below the 
present apparent source.! This crack is about 16 feet long, is of 
great depth, and runs east and west. The western end of it just 
enters the mouth of the cave where the apparent source is today, 
but the eastern end passes out into the bed of the valley. All the 

1 See Dr. Masterman in the Biblical World, Vol. XXXIX, p. 295, f. 


al ee ae Du. 


JERUSALEM 203 


water would discharge into the valley but for a wall at the eastern 
end of the rift, built in very ancient times, which confines the water 
and compels it to flow into the cave. This wall was constructed by 
some of the earliest inhabitants of the place. The spring thus 
produced is intermittent. Its flow is not ceaseless. The water 
breaks from the hole in the rainy season, three to five times a 
day; in the summer but twice a day; and after the failure of the 
spring rains, less than once a day. This fact indicates that the 
waters collect in some underground cavern from which they are 
drained by a siphon-like tunnel. The “troubling” of the Pool of 
Bethesda (John 5 : 4) is thought by some scholars to have been due 
to the action of such a siphon-like spring. 

3. Cave-dwellers.—About this spring the Parker expedition 
found large caves and rooms excavated in the rock, and indications 
that these had once been inhabited. A great deal of pre-Israelite 
pottery was also found around the spring. These indications seem 
to show that the site was inhabited for at least a thousand years 
before David, and perhaps for two thousand, and that its first in- 
habitants were cave-dwellers. One naturally thinks in this con- 
nection of the cave-dwellers of Gezer. It is possible that the first 
Jerusalemites belonged to the same period and were of the same race. 
One thinks, too, of the sacred cave and the stone altar on the next 
peak of the eastern ridge to the north, where the temple afterward 
stood, and wonders whether it may not have been the sanctuary of 
this early cave-dwelling race. A definite answer cannot be given 
to this question. One can only recognize that it may possibly be 
true. 

4. The El-Amarna Period.—The next knowledge we have of 
Jerusalem comes from the letters of Ebed-Hepa, which were written 
to Amenophis IV of Egypt between 1375 and 1357 8. c. At that 
time it was already a walled city, for Ebed-Hepa speaks of “throw- 
ing it open.’”! 

The fortified city of Ebed-Hepa was, no doubt, identical with the 
later Jebusite city. It was situated on the eastern hill just above 
the spring of Gihon. Probably in the period just before this time 
it had, like Gezer, been surrounded by a massive wall. In connec- 
tion with this fortification the rock near Gihon had been scarped 
(cut to a perpendicular surface) in order to increase the difficulty of 


1See Part II, Chapter XVII, Letter V, and the writer’s note in the Biblical World, XXII, p. 
Zi; ni. 5. 


204 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


scaling the wall.! As the wall of Gezer lasted for a thousand years, 
so this Egyptian wall continued to the reign of David. 

It is privately reported that Weil in his excavation in 1913-14 
found on the eastern hill remains of a wall with a sloping glacis 
similar to that belonging to the earliest period of Megiddo. This 
would not only confirm our inference that Jerusalem was a walled 
city in the time of Ebed-Hepa, but indicate that its wall had been 
built at a much earlier time. It was also in the fourteenth century 
B. c. the capital of a considerable kingdom which Ebed-Hepa ruled 
as a vassal of the king of Egypt. This kingdom extended as far 
west as Beth-shemesh and Keilah (1 Sam. 23 : 1), including, per- 
haps, Gezer. Aijalon seems to have been included in it on the 
north, and Carmel in Judah (1 Sam. 25 : 2) on the south. 

When the letters of Ebed-Hepa were written, his kingdom was 
being attacked and apparently overcome by the Habiri, a people 
who may have been the first wave of the Hebrew conquest.? The 
letters of Ebed-Hepa cease without telling us whether or not the 
Habiri captured his city. If they did and they were really Hebrews, 
they did not hold it long, for, when the Biblical records lift the veil 
that hides so much of the past, Jerusalem was in the hands of the 
Jebusites. (See Josh. 15 : 63; Judges 1 : 21.) 

5. Jebusite Jerusalem.—The Jebusites held it all through the 
period of the Judges (Judges 19:10, 11). Israel did not capture it 
until the reign of David. (See 2 Sam. 5:6-8.) At some earlier 
period of the history of Jerusalem an underground rock-cut passage 
similar to the one at Gezer® had been made, so as to permit the in- 
habitants in case of siege to descend to the spring for water without 
going outside the walls; (see Fig. 241). The natural slope of the 
hill had been reinforced at this point by the escarpment of the 
rock, and the Jebusites felt so secure that they taunted the He- 
brews from the top of the walls. Joab, however, discovered the way 
to this underground passage through the cave back of the spring, 
Gihon, and, leading a band of men up through it, appeared suddenly 
within the city, taking the Jebusites by surprise, and captured it. 

6. The City of David.—David then took up his residence at 
Jerusalem, thus making it the capital of the kingdom of Israel. 
Thus the city of the Jebusites, situated on the eastern hill, which 
was called Zion, became the “city of David.” 


1See Biblical World, XX XIX, 306. 
2See Part II, Chapter XVII. 3 See Chapter VI, § 8. 


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A few modern writers still insist that the “city of David” was on 
the western hill, which since 333 a. p. has been called Zion. This, 
as most scholars have seen, is an impossible view. Solomon built 
a palace for Pharaoh’s daughter near his own on the temple hill, 
and, when she moved into it, she went up out of the city of David 
(1 Kings 9:24). As the western hill is higher than the eastern, 
she must have gone from a point on the eastern hill lower than the 
temple. When the temple was completed, Solomon brought the 
ark up from the city of David to the holy of holies in the new 
temple (2 Chron. 5:2). Scripture thus confirms the inferences 
from the pottery and the water supply, that the “city of David” 
was on the eastern hill, and that that hill was Zion. It was a small 
town, since the space it could occupy was not more than thirteen 
acres, and may have been less. 

(1) Millo.—After occupying his new capital David “built round 
about from Millo and inward” (2 Sam. 5: 9). What was Millo? 
This is a great puzzle, and there are many varying opinions about 
it. The word literally means a “filling,” and is employed in Assy- 
rian for the building up of a terrace on which a building may be 
erected. It may have been a “filling” on the line of the valley that 
separated the hill of the citadel of David from Moriah or the temple 
hill. It would seem to have been on the edge of the city, since 
David built from there “inward.” Some have supposed it to be a 
fortress, and the Septuagint translated it by ‘“akra,” which means 
“citadel.” Some have thought of it as a fort, others as a solid 
tower. If on the line of the valley mentioned, it may have been at 
the northeast corner, or at the northwest corner of the town. Some 
have supposed that it was at the southern end of the eastern hill in 
order to protect a pool there. Just below the southern end of the 
eastern hill in the valley of the Kidron lay the ‘King’s Gardens,” 
and just across the valley, the village of Siloah. In 2 Kings 12 : 20 
it is said that Joash was killed in Millo, leading down to Silla. We 
know of no Silla. Is it a corruption of the Hebrew word for “shade” 
or is it a corruption of Siloah? In the former case the reference 
might be to the King’s Gardens, in the latter to the village of 
Siloah. Either of these suppositions would favor a site for 
Millo at the south end of the hill, but the words “leading down 
to Silla” may have had quite a different origin and meaning.! 


1 Some scholars think the words are a distorted repetition of “in Millo,” which was accidentally 
repeated by a scribe. 


206 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Professor Macalister now believes that, in the tower above and 
a little to the north of Gihon, he has discovered Millo. 

(2) David’s Reign.—As David’s reign advanced and his success 
in war compelled neighboring nations to pay tribute, probably the 
population of Jerusalem increased. Such an increase would natur- 
ally lead to the erection of houses outside the walls, as it has in 
recent times. It is altogether probable that a settlement on the 
western hill was thus begun in the reign of David. There is no 
hint, however, that he took any steps to enclose such a settlement 
within a wall. The phrase “the way of the gate” in 2 Sam. 15:2 
implies that there was still but one gate in the walls. This is in 
striking contrast to the number of gates in later times. The only 
record that we have of further action on David’s part that affected 
the future growth of Jerusalem refers to the way in which he took 
over the rock on Mount Moriah and the sacred cave under it and 
made a sanctuary to Jehovah. (See 2 Sam. 24.) This action, 
at a later time, determined the site of the temple. 

7. Solomon’s Jerusalem.—David left Jerusalem a military for- 
tress; Solomon transformed it into a city with imposing buildings. 
This creation of a more imposing city was in accord with the general 
character of Solomon’s reign. He established a large harem, made 
marriage alliances with many neighboring kings, maintained such 
an establishment that it was necessary to make a regular levy on a 
different portion of the country each month for supplies, and en- 
deavored to make his capital as splendid as the capital of a rich 
commercial Phoenician monarch. Such a policy necessitated, 
probably, the enlargement of Jerusalem. David, who began life 
as a shepherd-boy, was content to live the simple life to the end; 
Solomon, born to the purple, desired to surround himself with a 
pomp befitting his rank. The Biblical writers were more interested 
in the construction of the temple and of Solomon’s palace than in 
any other phase of his work, but they have left us some hints of his 
activities in other directions. 

They tell us that he “built Millo and the wall of Jerusalem” 
(1 Kings 9 : 15), that he “built the wall of Jerusalem round about” 
(1 Kings 3:1), and that he “built Millo and repaired the breach 
in the city of David, his father” (1 Kings 11:27). Evidently 
Millo had fallen into disrepair since David rebuilt it, and the walls 
of the city of David on the eastern hill were also in need of repairs. 
These repairs he made, but did he go further? It is intrinsically 


JERUSALEM 207 


probable that he did. The king who fortified Hazor in N aphtali, 
Megiddo, Gezer, Beth-horon, Baalath, and Tamar would hardly 
leave a large suburb of his capital on the western hill unfortified. 
The statement that he “built the wall of Jerusalem round about,” 
while it does not clearly state that he did more than fortify the 
“city of David” on Zion, seems to imply that he did. This view is 
strengthened by Bliss’s discovery on the western hill of some walls 
that connected once with a great fortress at the southwest corner 
of the western hill, which he believed to be the work of Solomon, 
The site of this fortress is now occupied by “Bishop Gobat’s 
School,” an English foundation for the education of native boys. 
When the school was rebuilt in 1874 Mr. Henry Maudsley 
examined the surface of the rock, which is escarped, or cut per- 
pendicularly, for about 100 feet to the southeast of the school 
and 43 feet north of it. The scarp is about 40 feet high at 
the highest point; (Fig. 242). The school is built on a large pro- 
jection of the scarp 45 feet square and 20 feet high. The sur- 
face of the rock under the school bears unmistakable signs that 
there was once an ancient tower there. To the eastward of this 
Bliss discovered the foundations of an ancient tower. Beyond this 
to the east there was a deep rock-cut ditch. The tower on its 
northeast corner fitted into another rock-scarp which ran north- 
ward into land on which they could not excavate.! The deep 
rock-cut ditch or moat at the east of the scarp suggests that at the 
period of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, 1099-1188 a. D., this 
fortress formed the fortification of the southwest corner of the city, 
from which the wall ran off sharply in a direction a little east of 
north. This view is confirmed by the discovery which Bliss made 
of a wall, apparently built by the Crusaders, that ran in a north- 
easterly direction by an irregular course along the high part of the 
western hill toward the temple area. As this wall rested on re- 
mains of the Roman time it cannot well have belonged to a time 
earlier than the crusading period. May not, then, Maudsley’s 
scarp itself have been cut by the Crusaders who were most energetic 
and masterly builders? This seems hardly probable, for Josephus, 
in describing the course of the wall on the west side of the western 
hill, says that beginning at Herod’s palace (the modern Turkish 
fortress) the wall ran southward through a place called ‘“‘Bethso.’’? 


1 Bliss and Dickie, Excavations at Jerusalem, 1894-1897, passim, and p. 319, ff. 
? For “Bethso,” see Josephus, Wars of the Jews, V, iv, 2. 


208 ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Bethso is a corruption of Beth-zur, which means rock-fortress—an 
apt description of, the tower on Maudsley’s scarp. As Josephus 
makes no mention of the construction of a fortress at this point by 
Herod, it was probably built.at an earlier period. The writer holds 
with Bliss that it is probable that the original fortress on the site of 
Bishop Gobat’s School was constructed by Solomon and that he 
enclosed the top of the western hill with a wall. Whether that 
wall simply enclosed the top of the hill and followed something of 
the same course as the wall of the Crusaders mentioned above (so 
Bliss thinks), or whether it ran down the eastern slope of the western 
hill to the southern point of the ‘City of David,” it is impossible 
now to determine. 

The view that Solomon extended the city to the western hill 
cannot be proved, since there is no definite reference in the Bible 
to the western hill in the time of Solomon, and there is no inscrip- 
tion on the masonry found definitely to connect it with him. In 
consideration of all the conditions it seems probable that Solomon 
enclosed a part of the western hill. If so, the,wall built by Solomon 
on the north side of the western hill was probably on the line of what 
Josephus called the “first wall.” This wall. was rebuilt from time 
to time. The débris of a part of it seems still to be in place at the 
east end of “David Street” in modern Jerusalem. A short street, 
high above the surrounding levels, now runs on the top of this 
débris.! 

(1) Site of Solomon’s Buildingss—Concerning the building of 
Solomon’s palace and the temple there can be no doubt, for the 
Bible contains accounts of the construction of these. Their 
general location is also well known. They were across the little 
valley which separated the part of Zion called Ophel (where the city 
of David was situated) from the part sometimes called Moriah.’ 
This hill-top included the threshing-floor of Araunah, the Jebusite 
(2 Sam. 24), and Solomon now enclosed this with a wall. Sir 
Charles Warren believed that he found portions of this wall at the 
southeast angle of the ancient temple area, 80 feet below the present 
surface of the ground. During his excavations in the years 1867- 
1870 he sunk at this point a shaft to the native rock, from the bottom 
of which a tunnel was carried inward to the base of the wall. He 


1See J. E. Hanauer, Walks about Jerusalem, London, 1910, 88, 89. 
2 The writer is well aware that the name Moriah for this part of the hill rests on slender evidence, 
but he employs it nevertheless as a convenient term, since it is well understood by readers of the 


ible. 


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JERUSALEM 209 


found twenty-one courses of drafted stones below the surface at this 
point, and the stones in the lower courses bore quarry marks which 
resemble old Hebrew or Phcenician characters.! The lower courses 
of stones were from 3 feet 6 inches to 4 feet 33 inches in height. 
Some of the characters were cut in the stones; some painted on 
them. It is most probable that these were remains of the work of 
Solomon; (see Figs. 244, 245, and 246). 

The enclosure of this hill-top with a wall set it apart from the 
rest of Jerusalem. It was a kind of separate fortress. At the 
time it emphasized the majesty of Solomon—his apartness from his 
people. This separate enclosure of the temple hill was perpetuated 
through the whole history of Jerusalem and is maintained today. 
In all periods the temple hill has been a fortress that could be de- 
fended apart from the city. 

_ (2) Solomon’s Temple.—Of the form and situation of the build- 

ings of Solomon on the hill that was enclosed by this new wall, 
there is a wide diversity of opinion. This diversity arises in part 
from the fact that some scholars take at their face value statements 
of Josephus, the Talmud, and other late sources concerning Solo- 
mon’s temple, while others attribute less weight to the statements 
of those sources which were written long after this temple was 
destroyed, and base their views rather on the earlier documents. 
The last is the only sound method of study, and is the course fol- 
lowed here. We shall take as evidence of the plan and situation of 
the buildings the Biblical writers who had seen them. 

We are at the start confronted, however, with a difficulty, since 
no Biblical writer has given us an exact statement as to what part 
of the hill Solomon’s temple occupied. Most modern scholars hold, 
nevertheless, that it was built at the highest point of the hill just 
west of the sacred cave, which has already been mentioned,? and 
the old rock-altar above it. This view is confirmed by Josephus? 
and is undoubtedly correct, although three or four modern scholars 
have doubted it. The temple would naturally be built near the 
spot where the angel is said to have appeared to David (2 Sam. 24: 
16), and as angels are frequently represented in the Old Testament 
as appearing upon rocks (see Judges 6 : 11, f.; 13 : 19)4 it is alto- 
gether probable that the appearance to David was on the rock-altar 


1 Warren and Conder, Jerusalem, pp. 148-158. 

2See Chapter XI, p. 184. 

3 Wars of the Jews, V, Ree de 

4 So Stade, Geschichte des Volkes I sracls, Berlin, 1889, I, 314, and G. A. Smith, Jerusalem, II, 60. 


210 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


at the top of the hill. On this rock the animals for sacrifice were 
slain, as the conduits for blood still visible on its top indicate. 
Near it, then, or on it the altar of burnt-offerings stood. We learn 
from Ezekiel, who had served as a priest in the temple of Solomon, 
that the temple faced the east, that it stood to the west of the altar, 
and that there was room between the temple and the altar for 
twenty-five men. (See Ezek.8:16.) The temple was a rectangu- 
lar building with its greatest length running east and west. Its 
measurements were 124 feet for the length, 50 for the breadth, and 
55 for the height. It was constructed of stones and cedar beams. 
The outer temple, afterward called the holy place, was 70 feet 
long, 344 feet wide, and 52 feet high. Back of it was the holy of 
holies, where the ark was placed. It was a cube 343 feet each way. 
Apparently there was a chamber above it. This room was adorned 
with carvings of cherubim, palms, and open, flowers (1 Kings 6 : 29, 
32, 35). It had no window. According to 2 Chron. 3: 14, it was 
separated from the holy place. by a veil. The holy place contained 
the table of show-bread and ten golden lamp-stands (1 Kings 7 : 
49).2 The lattice work high up in the walls of this room (1 Kings 


1In giving the dimensions of the various temples, the writer has followed the calculations of 
George Adam Smith in his Jerusalem. W.Shaw Caldecott has published four volumes, one on the 
Tabernacle, one on Solomon’s Temple, one on the Second Temple, and one on Herod’s Temple, in 
which he claims to have discovered a key’ that harmonizes all the Biblical statements as to the 
measurements of these structures. His supposed key is his belief that. the Babylonians had three 
different cubits which they used side by side, that these cubits were known to Moses, and that their 
use was perpetuated in the temple. Should these pages be read by one who has accepted that 
claim as true, it is but fair that he be informed that Caldecott’s whole system is based upon a mis- 
interpretation of a Babylonian tablet that was published in Rawlinson’s Cuneiform I nscriptions of 
Western Asia, Vol. IV, p. 37. (See Tabernacle, pp. 107-139, and Solomon’s Temple, pp. 215, 
216.) This tablet contains a table of time and of distances. The unit of time in Babylonia was a 
kaskal-gid. An astronomical tablet published thirty years ago in the book most widely used by 
beginners in Assyrian says that at the equinox “six kaskal-gid was the day, six kaskal-gid the night.” 
The kaskal-gid was, then, a period of two hours’ duration. Just as in many countries the word for 
“hour” is used for distance, and a place is said to be so many “hours” away, so in Babylonia and 
Assyria kaskal-gid was used as a measure of distance. The tablet referred to gives a table of the 
ways of writing fractions of kaskal-gid and its other divisions in the simplest of the two Babylonian 
numerical systems. The Assyriologist learns from this tablet that 1 kaskal-gid (the distance of 
two hours) equalled 30 ush, that 1 ush equalled 60 gar, that 1 gar equalled 12 # or cubits, and that 
1 u equalled 60 shu or “fingers.” Caldecott, however, mistook the sign gid for a numeral five, the 
sign kaskal for a word meaning “ell,” and the word u meaning “‘cubit” for a sign signifying “plus”! 
He accordingly makes gar a “palm”; shu, a “‘three-palm ell”; ush, a “‘four-palm ell,” and kaskal-gid, 
a “five-palm ell”! His whole system is without foundation. 

Tables similar to the one published by Rawlinson were compiled in the scribal school at Nippur. 
One was published without translation by Hilprecht in 1906 in the Babylonian Expedition of the 
University of Pennsylvania, Vol. XX, and interpreted by the present writer in 1909 in The Haverford 
Library Collection of Cuneiform Tablets, Part II, pp. 13-18. The writer has examined other similar 
tablets in the University Museum, Philadelphia. 

2 See Chapter IX, p. 167. According to 1 Kings 7 : 48, there was a “golden altar” here also, 
but as this is not mentioned in chapter 6 many scholars think that it is a post-exilic gloss, in- 
troducing a feature from the second temple. 


a eee ee a ee ae ee ene, a 


JERUSALEM 211 


6:4) can have admitted only an uncertain light. The building 
was richly adorned with cedar and gold. It consisted of three 
stories, and the walls were of varying thickness, since ledges were 
built in them to receive the beams of the different stories. Each 
story contained a series of chambers for storage or the use of the 
priests. Those of the first story were five cubits wide, those of the 
second six, and those of the third seven; (see F igs. 247-249). 

In front of the temple was a porch of unknown height, and before 
this were two bronze pillars with ornamented tops, named Jachin 
and Boaz. A little to the southeast of the temple in the open air 
was a brazen laver supported by twelve brazen oxen (1 Kings 
7 : 23-26, 39). Before the temple Solomon also placed a brazen 
altar (2 Chron. 1 : 5,6; 2 Kings 16:14). Another article of temple 
furniture is described as a “‘base.” It was apparently a portable 

holder for a laver. It was made of bronze, provided with wheels, 
and ornamented with figures of lions, cherubim, and palm-trees 
1 Kings 7 : 27-37); (see Figs. 251, 252). 

It is clear that the temple was not, like a modern church, intended 
for the accommodation of the people. It was simply Jehovah’s 
dwelling. Hither the priests might come to bring the offerings 
of the people, and to propitiate him. Solomon surrounded the 
temple with a court enclosed by a wall of three courses of hewn 
stones and cedar beams (1 Kings 6 : 36). This court became in 
later time the auditorium of the nation. Outside of this was 
a larger court with walls of similar construction (1 Kings 7 : 12); 
(see Fig. 243). 

(3) Solomon’s Palace—Just to the south of the temple court, 
separated from it only by a wall, was a middle court in which was 
Solomon’s own palace and the palace of Pharaoh’s daughter (1 
Kings 7:8). These palaces were a little lower down the hill than 
the temple, and Solomon had a private “ascent” by which he could 
go up into the temple (1 Kings 10:5). The royal palaces were so 
near that a shout in the court around the altar could be heard in the 
palace (2 Kings 11 : 12,13). These palaces were built of hewn stone 
and cedar. South of this court was still another, separated from it 
bya wall. In this most southerly and lowest of the courts stood the 
hall of state, in which was the throne room, where Solomon sat in 
judgment. This hall was paneled with cedar from floor to roof. 
The throne was of ivory, was approached by six steps, and flanked 
on each side by lions (1 Kings 10: 18-20). South of this and 


212 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


probably intended as its vestibule was the “porch of pillars,’ 86 by 
52 feet (1 Kings 7:6). Still south of this stood the “house of the 
forest of Lebanon”’ (1 Kings 7 : 2), so called because its four rows of 
cedar pillars were poetically suggestive of a Lebanon forest. This 
was the largest of all the buildings, being 172 feet long, 86 feet wide, 
and 52 feet high. There seem to have been two stories, the upper- 
most of which was supported by 45 pillars in three rows. Josephus 
says that the upper room of this hall was designed to “‘contain a 
great body of men, who would come together to have their causes 
determined.” He may have been influenced, however, in making 
the statement by the customs of his own time. 

As one went northward, then, up the hill from the “city of 
David,” he passed through a gateway into the large court. In this 
court he came first to the “house of the forest of Lebanon.” Be- 
yond this he would enter through the ‘“‘porch of pillars’ into the 
splendid hall of judgment with its imposing throne. If he were a 
favored servant or an honored guest of the king, he might be ad- 
mitted to the inner court, in which case he would behold the im- 
posing palaces of Solomon and his principal queen. A passageway 
to the eastward of this more private court led the person not so 
favored to the sacred court about the temple. 

In the construction of these buildings Solomon employed Phoe- 
nician architects and workmen. His buildings were, therefore, 
more imposing than those ordinarily erected in Palestine. The 
Phoenicians were the intermediaries of the ancient world, and 
were the recipients of influences from Babylonia, Egypt, the 
Hittites, Cyprus, and the Mycenean world. Through them some- 
thing of the world’s architectural culture touched the buildings of 
Solomon. 

8. From Solomon to Hezekiah.—Between the time of Solomon 
and Hezekiah, the Bible furnishes us with but little information — 
about Jerusalem. One topographical fact is given us in the 
narrative of the war between Amaziah of Judah and Jehoash of 
Israel, before 782 B. c. After Jehoash had been victorious in the 
battle at Beth-shemesh, he came up to Jerusalem and “brake down 
the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim unto the corner 
gate, four hundred cubits” (2 Kings 14 : 13); (see Fig. 304). 
This wall was afterward repaired by Uzziah, who strengthened it 
with towers. aye 


1 Antiquities of the Jews, VIII, v, 2. 


JERUSALEM 213 


Indeed, it seems probable that Uzziah’s work was more extensive 
and that, in order to render the city more impregnable, he added a 
second wall on the north. Certainly a wall existed here before the 
Exile, for when Nehemiah rebuilt the walls, this wall joined the 
temple area at its northwest corner, and we know of no king after 
Uzziah who would be likely to construct such a defence unless it was 
Hezekiah. As the city easily withstood the attack of Pekah and 
Rezin in 735 (Isa. 7 : 1, ff.), it seems probable that Uzziah was the 
builder. 

This wall by whomsoever it was built was in all probability on 
the line of the so-called “second wall” of Josephus. As to just what 
its course was we cannot now tell, further than that it started from 
near the Corner Gate, near where the modern Turkish fortress now 
stands, and terminated at the temple area. Some have supposed 
that after leaving the Corner Gate it ran as far northward as the 
line on which the northern wall of the modern city runs, then east- 
ward from there to a point near the present Damascus Gate, and 
then turned southward to the temple area. This seems improbable, 
however, since in the time of Zechariah the tower of Hananel, which 
stood near the northwest corner of the present area of the Mosque of 
Omar, was the most northerly point of the city. It is thus pos- 
sible that this second wall may have run south of the site of the 
Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Its whole course accordingly lies 
underneath the present city. None of this has been excavated ex- 
cept a short part of the course near the ancient Corner Gate. In 
1885, when digging was in progress for the foundations of the Grand 
New Hotel, just inside the Jaffa Gate and north of the Turkish 
fortress, a course of large Jewish stones was laid bare which the late 
Dr. Merrill and others believed to be a part of this second wall. 
The nature of the digging did not, however, disclose its course 
for any great distance; the part revealed ran nearly north and 
south. 

Unless Solomon built the wall which ran from Maudsley’s scarp 
at the northwest corner of the western hill eastward down the slope 
of that hill to the southern point of the eastern hill, it must have 
been built by some king of this period. No hint is given us as to 
who built this wall. It may have been done in the reign of Jehosha- 
phat, which was a period of prosperity and expansion (2 Kings 
3 : 4-12), or in the reign of Uzziah, which was also a very prosperous 
time. The need of stronger defenses created by the advance of 


214 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


the Assyrians into western Asia in the ninth and eighth centuries 
B. Cc. makes it probable that Uzziah was the builder. At all events 
it was accomplished by the time of Hezekiah. 

In the reign of Ahaz there was a conduit (Isa. 7 : 3) leading from 
the ‘‘upper pool,” or Gihon, to a lower pool, which probably lay 
somewhere near the mouth of the Tyropceon valley. This conduit 
has been discovered. It was designed partly to conduct water 
from Gihon out into the valley of the Kidron for the irrigation of the 
king’s gardens, and partly to fill the lower pool so that cattle could 
come and drink. Isaiah refers to the waters of this conduit as 
“the waters of Shiloah that go softly” (Isa. 8:6). Of course, this 
conduit was in Isaiah’s time an old one. It is impossible to 
tell when it was first constructed. It may have been made as 
early as the time of Solomon or David, or even in Jebusite 
times. 

In the reign of Ahaz a change was made in the nature of the altar 
of burnt-offerings in the temple. When Ahaz went to Damascus to 
do homage to Tiglath-pileser IV of Assyria, he saw an altar that 
pleased him, and sent a pattern of it home to the high priest, Urijah, 
with directions to have one made like it for the temple. This 
Urijah did. This altar was apparently constructed of stone. 
It displaced the brazen altar of Solomon, which was _hence- 
forth kept for the king’s private use (2 Kings 16:10-16). It 
is thought by some that the measurements of this stone altar 
are reproduced in Ezekiel 43:13-17. The brazen altar had 
always been out of accord with the Hebrew law. (See Exod. 
20 : 24-26.) 

9. Hezekiah.—Apart from his reform (2 Kings 18 : 1-6) and the 
invasions of Sennacherib (2 Kings 18 : 9, ff.), the event of especial 
interest mentioned in connection with Hezekiah is that “che made the 
pool and the conduit and brought the water into the city” (2 Kings 
20:20). Scholars are agreed that this refers to the rock-cut aque- 
duct in which the Siloam inscription was found.! This was for the 
time of its construction a notable engineering achievement, though 
recent exploration of the tunnel shows that the workers frequently 
went astray and cut in directions that they did not intend. Indeed, 
it is probable that the great bends in the tunnel were made on ac- 
count of such mistakes and not as Clermont-Ganneau formerly 
thought in order to avoid the tombs of the kings. Up to the pres- 


1See translation, Part 11, p. 437. 


JERUSALEM 215 


ent, search for these tombs has been vain. They must have been 
somewhere on the eastern hill, but there is no reason to believe that 
they were at the great depth at which this tunnel was cut through 
the rock. 

If the supposition made above as to the walls of Uzziah is cor- 
rect, it was Hezekiah who built the first wall across the mouth of 
the Tyropceon valley so as to enclose within the city his new pool. 
_ This wall was found by Bliss. It formed the dam of the pool. It 
was strongly buttressed and had been rebuilt from time to time. 
Bliss detected five periods in its history.! 

10. From Hezekiah to the Exile—After Hezekiah, the general 
features of Jerusalem remained the same down to the time of the 
Babylonian Exile in 586 B. c. We hear of a Fish Gate, probably 
where it was at a later time, at the north of the city in the wall built 
by Uzziah. Zephaniah mentions in connection with it “the second 
quarter” of the city (Zeph. 1 : 10), which was probably the part of 
the town between the north wall of Uzziah and the older north wall 
of Solomon on the western hill. The prophetess Huldah lived there 
in the time of Josiah (2 Kings 22:14). Zephaniah also mentions 
a part of the city called Maktesh or the Mortar (Zeph. 1 : 11). 
This was a part of Jerusalem occupied by Phoenician traders and 
craftsmen. It was probably in the hollow between the two hills, 
7. é., in the Tyropceon valley. 

In the reign of Manasseh we hear of the sacrifice of children. 
For this purpose a pit was excavated on the floor of the valley of 
Hinnom, to the south of the city, and arrangements were made to 
burn the victims. This was called Topheth (Jer. 7:31). Later it 
was defiled (2 Kings 23 : 10), and to perpetuate the defilement re- 
fuse from the city seems to have been burned there. The valley of 
Hinnom is in Hebrew gai hinnom. Later generations conceived 
that the heavenly Jerusalem had also its valley of Hinnom for the 
consumption of its refuse, hence gai hinnom is used in the New 
Testament in the form Gehenna as a name of hell. (See Matt. 
Be29310 : 28.) 

11. The Destruction of 586 B. c—Toward the end of the siege of 
Jerusalem by Nebuchadrezzar in the year 586 it is said that the men 
of war fled by the way of the gate between the two walls which was 
by the king’s garden (2 Kings 25:4). This was evidently a gate 
by the Pool of Siloam, where the two walls of the eastern hill and 

1See Bliss, Excavations at Jerusalem, pp. 96-109. 


216 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


the wall which came down the western hill and crossed the mouth 
of the Tyropceon valley all came together.' 

In August of the year 586 B. c. Jerusalem was destroyed by 
Nebuchadrezzar. The temple, the royal palace, and the residences 
of the principal men were burned and the walls of the city were 
broken down (2 Kings 25:9, 10). All that was combustible was 
burned, including the city gates (Neh. 1:3). All portable things 
of value were carried away. Jerusalem now entered on a period of 
desolation. ‘The city was probably not entirely deserted. Some of 
the poor who still managed to extract a subsistence from the desolate 
hills still found shelter in her ruins. All the well-to-do inhabitants 
were transported to Babylonia. 

It is often assumed that the site of the temple was unused during 
the Exile and that no offerings were made there, but Jer. 41 : 4, 5 
shows that this was not the case. Probably an altar was repaired 
very soon, and the poor people still went through their most indis- 
pensable religious ceremonies amid the desolation, for men came 
from Samaria two months after the destruction of the city to cele- 
brate there the Feast of Tabernacles. 

This destruction of the city and the deportation of its population 
made a very deep impression on the Jews. How their affections 
clung to the desolate and defaced city is touchingly depicted in the 
book of Lamentations and in the 137th Psalm. Indeed, the de- 
struction of the real Jerusalem was the beginning of that ideal 
Jerusalem which has been so influential in the religious history of 
the world.’ 

12. The Second Temple.—Beyond the erection of an altar, al- 
ready mentioned, the first steps toward the rebuilding of the temple 
were taken, so many scholars think, in the second year of King 
Darius of Persia, i. ¢.,in520B.c. Eighteen years earlier Cyrus had 
made it possible for this to be done,* but for various reasons it had 
not been undertaken. The man whose preaching moved the people 
to begin the rebuilding was Haggai, and the circumstances under 
which he did it are recounted in his book. Haggai’s persuasion 
was later seconded by the efforts of Zechariah. Through four 

1See G. A. Smith, Jerusalem, I, 226. For another view, see Paton, Journal of Biblical Litera- 
ture, XXV, 1-13. 

2See G. A. Smith, Jerusalem, II, Chapters X and XI. 

3 See Chapter II, p. 70; also Part II, p. 445, f. 

4 Ezra 5 : 16 states that Sheshbazzar laid the foundations of the house in the reign of Cyrus, but 


as Haggai and Zechariah give no hint of this, many scholars think there must be some error in the 
text. 


JERUSALEM 217 


years the house slowly rose, and was finally completed in March of 
the sixth year of Darius (516 B. c.), five months less than 70 years 
after it was destroyed. 

There is no doubt that the second temple was built on the 
lines of the first, which were probably still traceable in the débris. 
It was also constructed of stone which still lay about the top of the 
hill—stone that had been used in the work of Solomon. It was not 


_ because it was smaller than the first temple that old men who had 


seen that wept as they looked on the new one (Ezra 3:12), but 
because it was less ornate. It was probably without ornament. 
Josephus (Contra Apion, i, 22) says that the temple court was en- 
closed by a wall a plethra in length and 100 Greek cubits in breadth, 
1. €., 4853 by 1452 feet. It was not, then, very large. It is un- 
certain whether there was at this time more than one court; 1 
Macc. 4 : 48 speaks of “courts,” but Josephus tells! how the people 
pelted Alexander Jannzus with citrons while he was officiating at 
the altar during the Feast of Tabernacles, so that it is probable 
that the courts were not separated by a wall, but by a difference 
of elevation. The inner court was probably higher than the other, 
as it is around the Mosque of Omar today. 

Within this court was an altar of unhewn stones. The temple 
itself consisted as before of the holy place and the holy of holies. 
Before the holy place was a porch, and around the building there 
were many small chambers as formerly. The holy of holies was 
separated from the holy place by a veil (1 Macc. 1 : 22), but now it 
contained no ark of the covenant, as that had been lost in 586 B. Cc. 
The holy of holies in the second temple was empty except for the 
“stone of foundation” on which the high priest placed his censer on 
the day of atonement.” In the holy place the table of show-bread 
stood in front of the veil. Instead of the ten golden lamp-stands of 
Solomon’s temple there now stood there the lamp with seven 
branches (see Zech. 4). A golden altar of incense replaced it 
(1 Macc. 1 : 21) in the time of the Maccabees, though it may not 
have been placed there before the time of Ezra. 

Such was the temple as reconstructed after the Exile. In one 
important respect its perspective was changed. The royal palace 
and the administrative buildings, which before the Exile had shared 
the crest of the northern spur of Zion with the temple, were not 


1 Antiquities of the Jews, XIII, xiii, 5. 
2See the Mishnah, Middoth 3: 6. 


218 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


rebuilt. The temple stood there alone. Little by little the part of 
the hill to the south of the temple was cleared of the débris and the 
ground became a temple court. This was significant of the religious 
condition of the post-exilic time. Kings had vanished; the worship 
of Jehovah held the supreme place in the thought of the people. 

13. Nehemiah and the Walls.—For seventy-two years after the 
temple was rebuilt, the walls of the city stilllay inruins. That they 
were at last restored was due to the patriotism and energy of a noble 
young Jew, Nehemiah, who had been a cup-bearer to Artaxerxes 
I of Persia. The story of how he obtained the royal permission to 
return to Jerusalem as governor, with authority to rebuild the walls, 
how upon his arrival he traced by their ruins the lines of the old 
walls, with what energy and amid what difficulties he pushed their 
rebuilding to completion in the course of three months in the year 
444 8. c., is told in detail in Nehemiah 17 and need not be repeated 
here. 

At the northwest corner of the western hill there was placed in 
the wall at this time a gate called the Valley Gate (Neh. 3: 13) 
This was the gate discovered by Bliss* a little to the east of the old 
fortress on Maudsley’s scarp. When the wall was completed, a 
ceremony of dedication was held. At this festival two processions 
started from this Valley Gate; one of these went around the south 
side of the city, the other around the north side (Neh. 12 : 31-40). 
They met at the temple. The procession that went around the 
south side of the city passed by the Dung Gate, which was situated 
in the southern wall well down the hill, then by the Fountain Gate, 
near the Pool of Siloam, then up the “ascent of the wall” by the 
stairs of the “City of David,” and passed the Water Gate somewhere 
above the spring of Gihon. Still above this, probably just to the 
east of the temple area, was the Horse Gate (Neh. 3: 28). The other 
company, starting from the Valley Gate at the southwest corner of 
the city, passed northward by the “Tower of the Furnaces” unto 
the broad wall, above the Gate of Ephraim, by the Old Gate, and 
by the Fish Gate, past the Tower of Hananel and the Tower of 
Hammeah, unto the Sheep Gate. This description, together with 
the line of the previous wall, enables us approximately to deter- 
mine the outline of post-exilic Jerusalem; (see Fig. 305). The one 
point of doubt has to do with the line of the second wall on the north 
of the city, laid out probably by Uzziah. As that line is directly 


1 Excavations at Jerusalem, 16, ff. 


ek, a 


JERUSALEM 219 


under the present city it has never been possible to follow it by ex- 
cavations. Wecan only conjecture what its course may have been. 
The towers of Hananel and Hammeah were clearly north of the 
temple area. They probably fortified the wall along the edge of a 
shallow valley which separated Moriah from the hill north of it. 
This hill was later called Bezetha. 

14. Late Persian and Early Greek Periods.—After the time of 
Ezra and Nehemiah, we have no clear topographical references to 
Jerusalem until the second century B. c. It seems probable that 
Jerusalem and Judah rebelled against one of the later Persian kings 
and that the city suffered. We hear that Ptolemy I of Egypt also 
captured Jerusalem,’ but whether these experiences led to any 
modification in the form of the city, we do not know. The Wisdom 
of Jesus, the Son of Sirach, often called Ecclesiasticus, which was 
written about 180 B. c., indicates that Jerusalem was a carefully 
organized city. Many professions and much commerce were rep- 
resented in it, as well as many human sins and foibles. The author 
declares* that a high priest, Simon, the son of Onias (probably 
Simon II, 218-198 3. c.), repaired the temple and fortified the 
city. What the nature of either work was, we do not know. So 
far as can be ascertained, he confined himself to the strengthening 
of old defenses, and did not change the topography. 

In the early part of the reign of Antiochus IV, while many Jews 
were kindly inclined to Greek culture and to Greek ways, an out- 
door gymnasium was established in Jerusalem.5 This was in a 
hollow just above the Tyropceon valley to the west of the south end 
of the temple enclosure.® Josephus calls it the Xystus, a Greek 
name that reveals its character. Some reminder that it was once a 
gymnasium perhaps lingers in Maidan, the modern Arabic name for 
the locality, which means hippodrome, or place of combat. 

15. In the Time of the Maccabees.—In the Maccabean period 
the city was divided into three parts—the city proper, the temple, 
and the Akra or citadel. As to the situation of the Akra, there is 
a wide difference of opinion. Into the different theories it is 
impossible to go.” The writer agrees with George Adam Smith, 

1See Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XI, vii, 1; cf. also G. A. Smith, Jerusalem, I, 358-361. 

2 See Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XII, i. 

3 See Ecclesiasticus iii—v, vii, ix, xxiii, xxv, ff., and xxviii. 

{See Eccles. 50: 1-4. 

5 Cf. Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XII, v, 1. 


® See Selah Merrill, Ancient Jerusalem, New York, 1908, pp. 83-88. 
7™See G. A. Smith, Jerusalem, II, 447-452. 


220 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


that in all probability the Akra was the “City of David” of the 
earlier time, as 1 Maccabees states (1 : 33; 7:32, 33; 14 : 36). 
We first hear of this Akra in 198 B. c., when an Egyptian garrison 
held out in it against Antiochus III.* It was so shut off from the 
rest of Jerusalem that, though, after the onslaught of Antiochus IV 
on the Jews in 168 B. c., Judas Maccabeeus recovered the city and 
temple as early as 165 B. C., the Syrians kept possession of the 
Akra for twenty-three years more, until they were finally dislodged 
by Simon the Maccabee in 142 B. CA 

16. Asmonzan Jerusalem.—During the Asmonzan dynasty 
which grew out of the Maccabzean struggle,’ three new features 
were added to Jerusalem. One was a castle to the northward of 
the temple area built by John Hyrcanus 1, 135-105 3B. 0t 0his 
was known to Greek-speaking Jews as Baris, which is a corruption 
of the Hebrew Birah, a fortress. Its walls are massive and high. 
It commanded the approach to the temple area from the north, and 
greatly strengthened the effectiveness of the temple fortification. 

One of the Asmonzans, probably John Hyrcanus I, built a palace 
in Jerusalem.® This palace apparently stood on the site now occu- 
pied by the Synagogue of the German Jews in Jerusalem.’ It was 
connected with the temple area by a bridge,’ of which a remnant of 
the easternmost span, now called ‘‘Robinson’s Arch,”® is still visi- 
ble on the western wall of the temple enclosure. This bridge was 
destroyed by Pompey when he captured Jerusalem in 63 B. c.,? and 
its remains were found by Warren in the bottom of the Tyropceon 
valley, 80 feet below the present surface of the ground.” As the 
Asmonzans were high priests as well as kings, this bridge gave them 
easy access to the temple from their palace. The palace itself, 
situated on a part of the western hill that overtopped the temple 
hill, was so placed that the royal priest could sit in his palace and 
watch what was transpiring in the temple courts and in the valley 
below. 


1 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, LEW is 

2 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XIII, vi, 7. 

3 See Chapter V, p. 134. 

4 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XV, xi, 4; XVIII, iv, 3. 

5 Josephus, A ntiquites of the Jews, XX, viii, 11; Wars of the Jews, II, xvi, 3. 

6 Merrill, Ancient Jerusalem, p. 88. 

7 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XIV, iv, 2, and Fig. 255. 

8 Because its identity as a part of this bridge was first perceived by Prof. Edward Robinson, of 
Union Seminary, New York. 

9 Josephus, Wars of the Jews, I, vii, 2. 

10 Warren and Conder, Jerusalem, 178, f. 


JERUSALEM 221 


The third accomplishment of the Asmonzans was probably the 
construction of Solomon’s Pools and the High Level Aqueduct by 
which the water was brought into Jerusalem.! This work appears 
also to have been accomplished by John Hyrcanus I, for Timarchus, 
the biographer of Antiochus VII, who was a contemporary of 
Hyrcanus I, says of Jerusalem that “the whole city runs down with 
waters, so that even the gardens are irrigated by the water which 
flows off from it.”? Such a description would be quite unfitting, if 
all the water had been supplied by Gihon, En-rogel, and the cisterns 
about Jerusalem. It implies that a perpetual stream of water, 
such as came through one of the aqueducts, flowed into the city. 

One other structure is attributed to an Asmonean. Alexander 
Jannzus was very unpopular with the Pharisees, and once, as 
already noted, he was pelted by the people with citrons. He 
thereupon erected a wooden barrier around the temple and the 
altar, thus excluding the laity from a close approach to the temple,’ 
and creating a court for the priests alone. 

Jerusalem suffered from four sieges in the troublous days when 
the Asmonzan power was waning and that of Rome was being es- 
tablished. The first was by Haretat, King of the N abathzans, in 
65 B. C., but was lifted without result. The second was that of 
Pompey in 63 B. c. It resulted in the capture of the city and 
in considerable damage. The bridge across the Tyropceon to the 
toyal palace was broken down.’ The third was that of the Par- 
thians in 40 B. c., when they captured the city and placed Anti- 
gonus, son of Aristobulus II, on the throne.6 The fourth was that 
by which Herod the Great became master of Jerusalem in 37 B. c. 
At this time a part of the two northern walls were broken down,” 
The topography of the city was in no way changed until after the 
conquest by Herod, who changed the face of Jerusalem in many 
ways. 

17. Herod the Great.—The first work of Herod was to rebuild 
and strengthen the fortress to the north of the temple. This he 
did at the beginning of his reign while Mark Antony was still in 
power in the East. He accordingly renamed the castle Antonia. 


1See Chapter VI, p. 146. 

? Quoted by Alexander Polyhistor and Eusebius; see G. A. Smith, Jerusalem, II, 462. 
3 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XIII, xiii, 5. 

4 Ibid., XIV, ii, 1. 

5 Ibid., XIV, iv, 2. 6 Ibid., XIV, xiii, 3, 4, 5. 

1 Tbid., XIV, xv, 25 xvi. 8 Ibid., XV, viii, 5. 


222 ARCHASOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Herod also rebuilt and strengthened the walls which he had bat- 
tered down in taking Jerusalem, adding towers to make them more 
impregnable. At the southwest corner of the city he erected three 
new towers,—Hippacus, Phasael, and Mariamne.! These all prob- 
ably stood in or near the space now covered by the Turkish fortress 
at the Jaffa Gate. Hippacus was apparently the northwest tower 
of the present citadel, Phasael the easternmost of the towers in the 
same structure, which still bears the name “Tower of David”; 
Mariamne lay to the east of these. Hippacus was 80 cubits high, 
Phasael 90, and Mariamne 50. On the north of these, perhaps near 
the point where the northwest corner of the present city wall is, 
stood Psephinus, an octagonal tower 70 cubits high. 

(1) Herod’s Palace—In connection with the towers Hippacus 
and Phasael and on the site of the present Turkish citadel, Herod 
built a new and splendid royal palace.” Its walls on the west and 
north were the same as the old city walls; on the east and south, 
walls of the same massiveness were erected. It contained two halls, 
each the size of the sanctuary, with couches within for a hundred 
guests. There were many other richly furnished chambers. The 
towers and the palace were faced with marble. Stretching to the 
southward. of the palace were colonnades which bordered on open 
courts, in which shrubberies, fountains, and long walks abounded. 
These fountains were fed by the High Level Aqueduct. 

This palace commanded the highest point of the southwestern 
hill. Its construction finally transferred the controlling power to 
the western hill, or as Josephus calls it, the “Upper City.” Ever 
after this the western hill was the seat of political power. When 
Procurators ruled Judea this palace became the pretorium.* It 
was to this castle that our Saviour was brought to be tried by 
Pontius Pilate. It was to its entrance, probably on the east, that 
Pilate brought Jesus and offered to release him, when the people 
cried: “Away with this man . . . crucify him” (Luke 23 : 18, 21). 
This palace, built by one of the ablest and most unscrupulous of men, 
is thus associated with one of the most sacred and tragic moments 
of history. From that day to this it has remained the seat of 
political authority in Jerusalem. Its presence on the western hill 
has gradually drawn the name Zion from the original city of David 


1 Josephus, Wars of the Jews, V, iv. 3. 
2 Tbid., V, iv, 4. (See Fig. 256.) 3 ‘ 
3 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XVII, ix, 3; Wars of the Jews, I, ii, 2; xiv, & 


JERUSALEM 223 


to the western hill, and so distorted the Old Testament traditions 
that even several modern scholars! still refuse to give credence to the 
clear voice of the Old Testament as to the site of the original Zion. 
The palace, battered down and rebuilt again and again, still retains 
in its walls many of the massive stones of Herod. This palace was 
completed about 23 B. c. | 

(2) Herod’s Theater—About 25 3B. c. Herod founded an athletic 
gathering to be celebrated every five years in honor of Augustus.? 
Josephus, in speaking of this fact, says that Herod built a theater in 
Jerusalem, and also a very great amphitheater in the plain. If he 
actually built a theater in the city, all traces of it have disappeared. 
To the south of the city on a hill considerably beyond the Valley of 
Hinnom, the remains of a great theater were discovered some years 
ago by the late Dr. Schick. This theater faced the north, its 
diameter was more than 130 feet, and spectators seated in it could 
see Jerusalem in the distance. It is thought by some scholars that 
this is the theater to which Josephus alludes, as Herod would hardly 
have ventured to outrage Jewish feeling by placing such a structure 
in the sacred city. If the discovery of Dr. Schick represents 
Herod’s theater, it is quite unknown where the “amphitheater in 
the plain,” to which Josephus makes reference, was situated. 

(3) Herod’s Temple—When the palace of Herod was com- 
pleted, the splendid structures of Antonia and the palace quite 
overshadowed the old dingy temple. The temple had frequently 
been repaired by the high priests, and perhaps during the Macca- 
bean time had been somewhat embellished, but it nevertheless 
remained essentially as it had been rebuilt after the Exile. Herod 
had built Sebaste on the site of ancient Samaria in 27 pz. c., and 
began about 22 B. c. to build Caesarea. In these and other cities 
he had erected splendid temples to heathen deities; naturally he 
desired to make the temple of his capital city worthy to stand 
beside them. He had difficulty in persuading the Jews to let him 
touch the sacred house, but yielding in many things to their scruples, 
work was finally begun in the year 20-19 8. c. Some of the priests 
became carpenters and stone-cutters, so that no profane hands need 
touch the sacred shrine. The old temple was taken down and the 


1 Colonel Conder, the late Dr. Merrill, Georg Gatt, Dr. Riickert, and Dr. Mommert. 

* Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Vie viitels 

* See Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund, 1887, p. 161, ff. Dr. Schick calls 
it an amphitheater, but it is simply a theater of the Greek type. 

* Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XV, xi, 2. 


224 ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


new one erected in the space of eighteen months. But much re- 
mained to be done and the work dragged along until after Herod’s 
death. In the time of Christ ‘forty and six years was this temple 
in building” (John 2 : 20), and it was not then completed. It was 
finished only in 64 A. D., six years before it was finally destroyed.’ 
The temple itself occupied the site of its predecessor, and was of 
the same plan and dimensions. These Herod did not dare to 
change. They were consecrated by nearly a thousand years of 
sacred associations. If he could not enlarge it, however, he could 
make it higher, and he made its elevation a hundred cubits or 172 
feet. He also enlarged the porch, making it 120 feet broad. The 
whole was built of huge blocks of white stone, with plates of gold 
upon the front.2. The holy of holies consisted, as before, of a dark, 
empty room, 35 feet in each dimension. It was separated from the 
holy place by curtains, an outer and an inner, which were a foot 
apart. The holy place was still 40 by 20 cubits, but was now 
made 40 instead of 30 cubits high.? Its furniture was the same as 
in the second temple: the table of show-bread, the altar of incense, 
and the lamp with seven branches; (Fig. 250). The entrance to 
the holy place, 15 cubits wide and 70 cubits high, was not closed 
by doors. Josephus declares that it was left open to set forth 
the “unobstructed openness of heaven.’”* 

On the top of the temple, spikes with sharp points were arranged 
to prevent birds from lighting upon it and defiling it. Twelve 
broad steps led down from the temple to the court of the priests.® 
These steps occupied nearly all the 22 cubits of space between the 
porch and the altar. Not far from the steps at the south stood the 
great laver, which had replaced the brazen sea of Solomon’s temple. . 
The altar of unhewn stones rose upon the sacred rock—sacred since 
the days of the Jebusites (and possibly since the stone age), to 
which it was fitted by masonry. The base of the altar was 32 cubits 
square and 1 high. On this rose a structure 30 cubits square and 5 
cubits high. On this was a ledge 1 cubit broad, to which the horns 
of the altar were attached. Not far above was another ledge, also a 
cubit broad, on which the officiating priests might stand. Above 
this was the altar hearth itself, which was 24 cubits square. South 


1 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XX, ix, 7. 

2 Tbid., XV, xi, 3. 

8 Above it was a chamber 30 cubits high. 

4 Josephus, Wars of the Jews, V, v, 6. 

5 See Josephus, Wars of the Jews, V, v, and the Mishna tract M iddoth for the authority for this 
description. For a fuller description, see G. A. Smith, Jerusalem, II, Chapter XVIII. 


JERUSALEM 225 


of the altar was a structure of masonry on which priests could stand; 
north of it, the place for the slaughter of the victims. Here the 
victims to be slain were tied to rings in the pavement. There were 
tables of marble on which they could be washed and flayed. Beams 
supported by pillars also contained hooks on which they could be 
hung for quartering. Herod, as noted above,! probably con- 
structed the Low Level Aqueduct. By means of this he brought a 
larger supply of water into the temple area, so that there was an 
abundance of water with which to flush the holy place, and wash 
away the blood and refuse with which the place must often have 
reeked, especially on festal days. 

A low wall a cubit in height marked off the court of the priests 
from the court of Israel. Accounts differ as to whether this wall 
was on the east only or whether it ran around the whole temple. 
The court of Israel lay to the east of the court of the priests. Again 
our sources of information differ as to its exact size. Here the 
“congregation of Israel’ could assemble to witness the sacred sacri- 
fices. To the east of the court of Israel lay the court of the women. 
These were separated by a wall, but, owing to the downward slope 
of the hill, the court of the women was fifteen steps lower than that 
of Israel. Indeed, the level of the court of Israel was only main- 
tained by a series of arches which supported a pavement. Perhaps 
the idea of a court for the women had been a gradual development of 
the post-exilic time, in which they had been permitted to watch the 
sacrifices from a definitely defined position in the rear of the men. 
At all events, this court became a prominent feature in the temple 
of Herod, and from elevated seats on its eastern side women could 
still watch the sacred ceremonies of the temple. With the excep- 
tion of this gallery, the court of the women was open tomen. It 
was 135 cubits square and so was relatively large. Apparently the 
temple treasury was situated in this court, together with the money 
boxes, for women had access to these. Here probably Christ was 
sitting when he saw the poor widow cast into the treasury her two 
mites (Mark 12 : 41, f.; Luke 21:1, f). Around these courts ran 
a wall 43 feet high. This wall was pierced by nine gates, four on 
the north, four on the south, and one on the east. A gate also 
separated the court of the women from the court of Israel. Either 
the gate that opened out of the court of the women to the eastward, 
or the one between the court of the women and the court of Israel (it 

1See Chapter VI, p. 147. 


226 ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


is uncertain which one) had been given by one Nicanor and was of 
fine Corinthian bronze. It was sometimes called “the gate beauti- 
ful’? and sometimes “‘ Nicanor’s gate.”? It was by this gate, and so 
near the treasury where people were devoting their money to relig- 
ion, that Peter and John found the lame man begging (Acts 3 : 2, f.). 

Outside all these courts lay the court of the Gentiles. This was 
separated from the courts described above by a Soreg or ritual wall, 
which no Gentile might pass. Herod placed inscriptions in Greek 
at the various gates in this ritual wall, which warned Gentiles on 
pain of death not to enter. The court of the Gentiles surrounded 
the other courts on the north, east, and south; it was, however, most 
extensive on the east and south; (Fig. 257). To obtain a greater area 
for this court on the south, Herod extended the level of the hill by 
erecting great arches which supported a pavement. This structure 
still remains; it is now called ‘Solomon’s stables”; (Fig. 258). 
In the Crusading period horses were stabled there. Around the 
court thus enlarged ran a beautiful colonnade. The pillars for this 
and for Herod’s palace were quarried from the rock around Jeru- 
salem. One pillar which had a defect and was accordingly never 
moved from the quarry was found a few years since in front of the 
Russian cathedral north of the city. 

Although the temple has passed away and other sacred buildings 
have since the second century, been erected in succession near its 
site, the expanse of the court of the Gentiles remains, and as the 
devout Christian visits it he seems almost to hear the footfalls of 
Christ and of Paul! 

18. The Pool of Bethesda.—Another spot connected with the 
life of Christ lay not far from the temple on the north; it was the 
Pool of Bethesda. It was situated near the Sheep Gate, which was 
just northeast of the temple. Since the thirteenth century the 
Birket Israin‘ which lies between the temple area and the modern St. 
Stephen’s Gate has been identified by some with Bethesda. Since 
1889 it has been thought by many that two pools discovered in that 
year, now far under ground, in the land of the Church of St. Anne, 
just north of St. Stephen’s Gate, constituted the Pool of Bethesda; 
(see Fig. 259). It is really impossible to decide between the two 
possibilities on the evidence we have. Both are in the region 
where we should look for the Pool of Bethesda. ; 

19. Gethsemane.—Two other spots near Jerusalem are of the 

1That is, the ‘‘ Pool of Israel.” 


JERUSALEM 227 


deepest interest to the Christian student—the Garden of Geth- 
semane and Golgotha. The fact is certain that the Garden of 
Gethsemane lay on the western Slope of the Mount of Olives. (See 
Luke 22 : 39; John 18: 1; Mark 14 : 26, 32.) Since the sixteenth 
century the Roman Catholics have shown a little garden, which 
lies just above the Kidron, as the Garden of Gethsemane. 
More recently the Russian Church has walled in the space next 
above it as the real garden. There is no certainty that the 
garden was on either site. To the Jews of the first century a 
garden was not a place for flower-beds, but an olive orchard, and 
such an orchard may have extended widely over the hillside. We 
cannot now identify the spot made sacred by the Master’s agony, 
but we know as we look at this hillside that it was somewhere on it. 

20. Calvary.—The site of Calvary or Golgotha is not so easily 
discerned. Since the year 326 A. D., when Helena, the mother of 
the Emperor Constantine, visited Jerusalem, there has been a con- 
tinuous tradition in favor of the site on which the Church of the 
Holy Sepulcher stands. We know from Hebrews 13 : 12 that the 
crucifixion took place outside the city walls. Unfortunately, we 
cannot tell whether the second wall of this period ran north or 
south of the spot on which the Church of the Holy Sepulcher 
stands, for the whole region lies under the modern city, where exca- 
vation has been impossible. If the second wall turned eastward 
before it had gone as far north as this spot, it may well be that the 
crucifixion occurred where the church now stands. Pilate con- 
demned Jesus at the palace of Herod near the gate Gennath at 
the northwest corner of the city of that day. Doubtless the mob 
swept along with Jesus through the gate Gennath to the spot called 
Golgotha. If the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was on that spot, 
the walk was not a long one; (see Fig. 260). 

In 1849 Otto Thenius suggested that the hill north of the modern 
Damascus Gate above “‘Jeremiah’s Grotto” was the real Golgotha; 
(Figs. 261, 262). This was also suggested by Fisher Howe in 
1871, and advocated by Gen. C. E. Gordon in 1881. Near it 
Is a garden in which is a rock-hewn tomb; (Figs. 263, 264). 
Since the days of Gordon a kind of Protestant tradition and cult 
has grown up about this spot that in certain quarters evokes 
some of the devotion called forth among Catholics and Oriental 
Christians by the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. It must be said 
that the tomb in the garden is, like many similar tombs in the 


228 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


neighborhood, probably not earlier than the third or fourth century 
A. D., and there is really no more reason for regarding this spot as 
Golgotha than any other hill-top near the city. The exact spot 
where our Lord suffered is not certainly known. 

Ecclesiastical tradition has fixed upon many other spots in Jeru- 
salem as the places where certain events in the life of Christ oc- 
curred, but none of these has a sufficient degree of probability in 
its favor to merit a mention in an archeological work. 

21. Agrippa I and the Third Wall.—In the reign of Herod Agrippa 
I (41-44 a. p.), Jerusalem was again enlarged. Agrippa built a 
third wall on the north. Its course is described by Josephus,’ 
but as most of the landmarks mentioned by him are unknown, 
opinions differ as to its course. It is certain that it started at the 
tower Hippacus and went northward to the tower Psephinus, that 
‘t enclosed the hill Bezetha, and that it ran along the edge of the 
Kidron valley to join the old wall. Some scholars suppose that it 
ran about on the line of the present northern Turkish wall of the 
city; others, as Robinson and Merrill, thought it ran much further 
north so that its northeastern corner was near the “Tombs of the 


Kings.” While there is not decisive evidence in the matter, the | q 


first view, that the third wall ran near the line of the modern wall, 
seems the more probable. This wall was begun by Agrippa, who | 
did not dare to finish it lest Claudius should suspect him of an in- 
tention to rebel. It was, however, completed by the Jews before 
the last tragic struggle of the years 66-70, and formed one of the 
features of Jerusalem when Paul made his later visits to the city. 

We have not space to follow the fortunes of Jerusalem further. 
The history of the “Virgin Daughter of Zion” since 70 A. D., when 
the walls were broken down and the temple destroyed never to be 
rebuilt, has been no less checkered and tragic than in the centuries 
that preceded,? but the hearts of all Christians as well as of Jews and 
Mohammedans turn to her with sympathy and affection, because of 
their debt to the holy men who at various times, from David to 
Paul, lived in her and walked her streets, and because of her tragic 
associations with the life and death of One who was more than man. 


1 Wars of the Jews, V, iv, 2. 
2 The city, restored under the heathen name of Alia Capitolina by the Emperor Hadrian in 135-3 
A. D., made Christian by Constantine in 325, sacked by the Persian Chosroes in 614, taken by the 
Arabs in 636, captured after many vicissitudes in 1072 by the Seljuk Turks, made by the First 
Crusade the seat of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem from 1099 to 1187, when Saladin took it, was 


once more after many other vicissitudes captured by the Ottoman Turks in 1517, 


CHAPTER XIV 


THE DECAPOLIS” 


Oricin. Damascus. ScyTHoPoLis. Cirtres East oF THE SEA OF GALILEE. GADARA. 
PELLA AND Dion. GERASA. PHILADELPHIA. JESUS IN THE DECAPOLIS. 


1. Origin.—Three times in the Gospels the Decapolis is men- 
tioned: Matt. 4 : 25; Mark 5: 20and 7:31. Decapolis is a Greek 
name and means “‘the ten city” (region). The ancient writers who 
mention it agree that it originally consisted of ten cities in which 

_ Greek population was dominant and which were federated together. 
Pliny’ gives the ten cities as Damascus, Philadelphia, Raphana, 
Scythopolis, Gadara, Hippos, Dion, Pella, Gerasa, and Kanatha. 
Ptolemy, the astronomer and geographer, in the second century 
A. D. enumerated eighteen cities as belonging to it. In the time of 
Christ it probably consisted of but ten. The Decapolis apparently 
was created by the Roman General Pompey, when he conquered 
this region for Rome in 65-63 B.c. These cities with Greek popula- 
tions appear to have appealed to him and he granted them certain 
privileges, including a degree of autonomy. They were, however, 
subject to the Legate of Syria. Hippos, Scythopolis, and Pella 
were released by him at this time from the Jewish yoke.? Josephus, 
at the end of the first century a. p., does not reckon Damascus in 
the Decapolis, but before the time of Paul, Damascus had been cap- 
tured by the Nabathzans or Arabians, and may not, when retaken 
by Rome, have been again accorded the privileges of the cities of 
the Decapolis. 

2. Damascus, which is mentioned in the annals of Thothmes III 
before 1447 8. c., and in the accounts of Abraham (Gen. 14: 13: 
15 : 2), has been continuously in existence as a city ever since, and 
is one of the most flourishing cities of Syria at the present time. 
It was occupied in the thirteenth or fourteenth century B. c. by 
Arameans who held it all through the Old Testament period. 
Kings of Damascus frequently fought with Israel. From the time 
of Alexander the Great it came under Hellenic influences. After 

1 Historia Naturalis, V, xviii, 74. 2 Josephus, Wars of the Jews, I, vii, 7. 


229 


230 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


his death it was first possessed by the Ptolemies of Egypt, but was 
taken by the Seleucid kings of Antioch before 261 8. c. It is situ- 
ated in one of the most fertile oases of the world—an oasis that 
Arabian poets delighted to compare to Paradise. Probably Alex- 
ander’s successors, who, as we shall see, built many Hellenic cities, 
beautified this oasis with one of them, but as the site has been occu- 
pied continuously, no buildings from this time remain. One fea- 
ture at Damascus that still recalls Biblical times is the street called 
Straight, which runs westward from the eastern gate into the heart 
of the city. It was in a house on the ancient forerunner of this 
street that Paul first lodged at the time of his conversion (Acts 
9:11); (see Fig. 265). 

One other part of Damascus recalls a Biblical narrative. This 
is the river Barada which still runs through the heart of the city. 
It is the river called Abana in 2 Kings 5 : 12, and was said by Naa- 
man to be “better than all the waters of Israel’’; (see Fig. 266). 

3. Scythopolis was the only one of the cities of the Decapolis 
west of the Jordan. It was on the site of the Beth-shean of the Old 
Testament (Josh. 17 : 11; 1 Sam. 31 : 10, 12; 2 Sam. 21 : 12; 1 Kings 
4:12). Beth-shean was already a city at the time Palestine was 
conquered by Thothmes III,! Seti I, and Ramses II, and there has 
been a town near it ever since. It seems to have been called Scy- 
thopolis by the successors of Alexander the Great, probably because 
a group of Scythians had taken the city and settled there. When it 
came into the possession of Scythians we can only conjecture, but it 
was probably at the time of the great Scythian invasion of Palestine; 
about 625-615 8. c. This invasion called forth the dark prophecies 
of the book of Zephaniah. Scythopolis appears from certain coins? 
to have become a Hellenic city in the time of Alexander the Great. 
In the time of Ptolemy Euergetes I, 247-222 8. c., it was subject to 
Egypt, but it passed to the dominions of the Seleucidz of Antioch 
in 1988B.c. Upon the break-up of the Syrian empire in 65-63 B. c., 
Pompey made it one of the cities of the Decapolis. 

The remains of the Hellenic city have now entirely disappeared 
with the exception of the great stone amphitheater. This may still 
be seen‘ in the valley on the south side of the mound which covers 


1See Chapter V, Dp. 126. 

* See Schiirer, Geschichte des Jiidischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi, Leipzig, 1907, II, 172, 
and note 321. 

3 See Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XII, iv 

4 See Barton, A Year’s Wandering in Bible Dae Philadelphia, 1904, p. 176, 


ot 


THE DECAPOLIS 231 


the ruins of the ancient Beth-shean, where it is overgrown with 
briers. The name Scythopolis has long since disappeared, and the 
old Hebrew name for the place still survives in the name of the 
modern town Beisan. This modern town is situated on the south 
side of the valley mentioned above, a little distance from the mound 
which covers the ancient city. Scythopolis was situated at the 
point where the plain of Jezreel or Esdraelon joins the Jordan valley. 
In the time of Christ the Jews from Nazareth and its vicinity, when 
going to the three annual festivals at Jerusalem, came down the 
plain and then followed the Jordan valley down to Jericho (see 
Luke 19 : 1), in order to avoid going through Samaria. From the 
time that Jesus was twelve years old he must, therefore, have often 
passed by Scythopolis on his way to Jerusalem. As it was a 
Gentile town, however, neither he nor his companions would enter 
it on such occasions, as they would thereby be rendered unclean. 

4. Cities East of the Sea of Galilee—tTo the east of the Sea of 
Galilee lay three of the cities of the Decapolis. Hippos was com- 
paratively near the sea, where Susiye now lies. The Jews of the 
Talmudic period called the place Susitha.! Hippos is the Greek 
for horse. Susitha is a Hebrew translation of this and Susiye is an 
Arabic corruption of the Hebrew. All traces of the ancient Hippos 
except the name have disappeared. 

Where Raphana was situated has not yet been definitely deter- 
mined. It is probably the same as Raphon mentioned in 1 Macc. 
5:37, which was near to Ashteroth-karnaim? (Gen. 14:5). 
Ashteroth-karnaim was situated either at Tell Ashtara or at Tell 
Ashary, both of which are between twenty and twenty-five miles 
east of the Sea of Galilee. Raphana, then, probably lay about 
twenty miles due east from Hippos. 

Still eastward of this lay the city of Kanatha, though scholars 
are divided in opinion as to whether its site is to be identified with 
F]-Kerak or with Kanawat. If its site was at El-Kerak it was about 
forty miles east of the Sea of Galilee; if at Kanawat it was about 
fifty-five miles distant from the sea. As there are at Kanawat 
abundant ruins of a beautiful Hellenic city,? Kanatha was probably 
situated here rather than at El-Kerak. This was the Kenath of 
Num. 32 : 42. 


1See Neubauer, Géographie du Talmud, Paris, 1868, 238-240. 
2 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XII, viii, 4. ‘ 
3 Briinnow and Domaszewski, Provincia Arabia, III, 107-144, and Fig. 267. 


232 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


5. Gadara.—A little to the south of the southern end of the Sea 
of Galilee on the east of the Jordan and south of the Yarmuk lay 
the city of Gadara, another member of the Decapolis. Its site is 
now marked by the ruins of Umm Keis or Mukés. Here ruins of 
the Hellenic city are still to be seen, including a great theater cut 
out of the black basaltic rock. Gadara was a strong fortress as 
early as the time of Antiochus the Great in 218 B. c.,1 and was 
afterward besieged by Alexander Jannzus,” 104-79 B. c. 

6. Pella and Dion.—On the east of the Jordan, a little further 
south than Scythopolis or Beth-shean, but in the deep depression 
of the river valley, Pella, another city of the Decapolis, was situ- 
ated. The site now bears the name Fahl. The city is mentioned in 
the list of Thothmes III, 1503-1447 8. c., as Pahul. Pella is a 
Greek form of this name. The Greek city of Pella is said by 
Stephen of Byzantium® to have been founded by Alexander the 
Great. In the Talmud it is called Pahal,* and the modern name 
Fahl is an Arabian form of this. Extensive ruins of the Hellenic 
city are still visible at Fahl.® 

Dion is also said to have been founded by Alexander the Great 
and was apparently not far from Pella. It is thought by Merrill® 
and G. A. Smith to have been situated on the site of the modern 
Eidun, about twenty miles east of Pella, though this is doubted by 
others.’ If Dion was at this point few, if any, antiquities remain 
to bear witness to the fact. 

7. Gerasa, the modern Jerash, lay on one of the tributaries of 
the Jabbok about fifty miles southeast of Pella. We do not know 
what the name of the place was in Old Testament times. It is 
first mentioned in the time of Alexander Janneus (104-79 s. c.).® 
It was then called Gerasa and was probably already at that time a 
Hellenic city. By whom it was built, we do not know, but it was 
probably one of the early Ptolemies of Egypt. From 100 B. c. 
till the Mohammedan conquest in 637 A. D., it flourished as a beau- 
tiful city, and later it was a city of some importance. It probably 
was overtaken by some calamity and the site of the Hellenic city 


1See Polybius, V, 71. 

2 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XIII, xiii, 3. 

8 Schiirer, Geschichte des Jiidischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi, 4th ed., II, 1907, p. 175. 

4 Neubauer, Géographie du Talmud, 274. 

5 See Merrill, East of the Jordan, New York, 1883, 184, ff. and 442, f.; also Schumacher, Across 
the Jordan, London, 1886, p. 272, f. 

6 Merrill, cbid., 298, and G. A. Smith, Historical Geography of the Holy Land, map. 

7So Briinnow and Domaszewski, Provincia Arabia, III, 264. 

8 Josephus, Wars of the Jews, I, iv, 8. 


THE DECAPOLIS 233 


abandoned soon after the year 637, as there are no Arabic remains 
above the Greco-Roman material. In the year 1121 Baldwin II, 
of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, made a campaign against 
Gerasa, where the ruler of Damascus had caused a castle to be 
built. In the next century the Arabian geographer, Yakut, de- 
scribes it as deserted. It appears to have been ruined by an earth- 
quake. 

Apparently the Hellenic city at Gerasa lasted longer than any of 
the other cities of the Decapolis unless it be Kanatha. One can, 
accordingly, gain from the ruins of Gerasa an excellent idea of Te 
general appearance of one of these cities.!_ The writer has never 
seen more beautiful ruins than those at Jerash except the ruins at 
Athens. As one approached the site from the south he faced a 
beautiful arched gateway. After passing this gateway one looked 
northward down a long colonnaded street, which at a little distance 
from the gate broadened out into a HATER forum. At distances 
approximately equal from one another this main street was crossed 
by other colonnaded streets. A number of these columns are stand- 
ing in different parts of the town. The remains of two imposing 
temples, of two theaters, of a large Christian basilica, and of various 
other buildings, impress one with the former glory of the city. A 
number of the buildings at Gerasa were built in the second century 
A. D. in the reign of the Antonines; (see Figs. 268, 269). 

8. Philadelphia, the most southerly of the cities of the Decapolis, 
was on the site of Rabbah Ammon (Deut. 3: 11; Josh. 13 : 25; 2 
Sam. 11:1, etc.). This was situated on the upper Jabbok about 
twenty miles east of the Jordan valley, where Amman now lies. 
The Hellenic city here was built by Ptolemy Philadelphus of Egypt, 
who reigned from 283-247 B. c. It was named Philadelphia from 
him. In 218 3B. c. the city was taken by Antiochus III, who 
captured the cistern to which in time of siege the Philadelphians 
went for water by an underground passage,? after which thirst 
compelled them to surrender. Joab centuries before had captured 
the city for David by the same method,’ and in 30 B. c. Herod the 
Great again took it in the same way.‘ The remains of the Hellenic 


1See Merrill, East of the Jordan, 281-284; Schumacher in Zeitschrift des deutschen Palistina- 
Vereins, XXV, 1912, 111-177; Briinnow and Domaszewski, Provincia Arabia, II, 234-139; Barton, 
A Year’s Wandering in Bible Lands, 158, f. 

2 See Polybius, V, 71. 

8 See 2 Sam. 12 : 27 and Barton in the Sarna of Biblical Literature, STE 147-152. 

4See Josephus, Wars of the Jews, I, xix, 5. 


234 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


temple, of the theater, and of other buildings, including a Christian 
basilica, are still to be seen at Amman.! In the fourth century 
A. D. Philadelphia was one of the prominent cities of the Roman 
province of Arabia; (see Figs. 270, 271). 

These cities of the Decapolis appear to have been built on a 
similar plan. Each had a colonnaded street through the center of 
the town, each had at least one temple and one theater, and some of 
them more. All were architecturally beautiful. They all pos- 
sessed a similar government also, and each appears to have con- 
trolled the villages in its district. 

9. Jesus in the Decapolis.—The prevailing influences in the 
Decapolis were pagan, and yet there were Jews living in it, for mul- 
titudes of them from the Decapolis followed Jesus (Matt. 4 : 25). 
On at least two occasions our Lord himself went into the territory 
of the Decapolis. We read in Mark 5 : 1 that Jesus and his disci- 
ples ‘‘came to the other side of the sea to the country of the Gera- 
senes.”” The Authorized Version reads “to the country of the 
Gadarenes.” The country to which Jesus came at this time cannot 
have been that of the Decapolitan city Gerasa, for, as we have seen, 
that lay far to the south. It was ina direct line nearly fifty miles 
from the Sea of Galilee. Neither can it have been to the region of 
Gadara that he came, for Gadara lay at least five miles to the 
south across the deep valley of the Yarmuk. There was, however, 
on the east shore of the Sea of Galilee a town called Gergesa, the 
modern Kursi. This place was near the city of Hippos, and possibly 
one of the towns subordinate to Hippos. As Jesus and the disciples 
walked back from the sea they met the demoniac, whom Jesus 
healed. It was in connection with this healing that the herd of 
swine was destroyed—an incident that could happen in no part of 
Palestine except Decapolis or Philistia, for swine were unclean to 
Jews and they never kept them. The demoniac, when cured, went 
and preached Jesus in the Decapolis (Mark 5 : 20). 

Again, toward the end of the ministry of Jesus, after he had with- 
drawn for a time to Phcenicia, he returned by crossing the high 
lands of northern Galilee and coming down east of the Jordan 
“through the midst of the borders of Decapolis” (Mark 7 : 31). 


1See Merrill, East of the Jordan, 399, ff.; Schumacher, Across the Jordan, 308; Briinnow and 
Domaszewski, Provincia Arabia, II, 216-220, and Barton, A Year’s Wandering in Bible Lands, 
155, f. 


CHAPTER XV 


ATHENS, CORINTH, AND THE CHURCHES OF ASIA 


ATHENS. CorINTH. THE CHURCHES oF ASIA: Ephesus. Pergamum. Thyatira. 
Sardis. Philadelphia. Smyrna. Laodicea. 


THE greater part of Biblical history was enacted in Palestine and 
the great valleys of Mesopotamia and the Nile. The Apostle 
Paul, however, broke the Jewish bonds of primitive Christianity and 
carried the Gospel to the coasts of the A2gean Sea. In cities of this 
region he spent years of his active missionary life; to churches of 
this region most of his epistles were sent, and to churches of this 
part of the world the seven messages to the churches were addressed. 
We cannot, therefore, conclude this sketch of what archeology has 
done to throw light upon the Bible without saying a few words 
concerning exploration and excavations in certain parts of Greece 
and Asia Minor. It will be impossible for lack of space to go thor- 
oughly into the history of this region, but as these lands were not, 
like Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, and Palestine, closely connected 
with Biblical history for a long period, detailed history of them 
before the Apostolic age will not be missed by the student of the 
Bible. 

The results of scattered discoveries at Thessalonica and else- 
where will be presented in Part II, Chapter XXX. At this point 
attention will be directed to a few important cities. 

1. Athens, the chief city of Attica, one of the least productive 
parts of Greece, is the far-famed mistress of the, world’s culture and 
art. Emerging from obscurity in the seventh century before 
Christ, gaining a position of leadership in the Persian wars after 
500 B. c., Athens established a considerable empire. In this period 
fell the age of Pericles, 460-429 s. c., when the artistic and literary 
genius of Athens reached a height never equaled in human history. 
Socrates was born here in 469 and lived till 399 8. c. Here Plato, 
who was born about 428, became a pupil of Socrates and afterward 
taught. Hither came Aristotle, after the year 367, to sit at Plato’s 
feet. Here from the age of Pericles the acropolis was peued with 

35 


236 ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


those architectural creations that are at once the admiration and 
the despair of the world; (see Fig. 277). It stirs the imagination 
to think of Paul in such a city. 

In the time of Paul, Athens was a Roman city, though still one 
of the great artistic and philosophical centers of the world. At a 
little distance from the acropolis on its northern side, a forum of 
the Roman period was laid bare in 1891; (see Fig. 272). Possibly 
this is the market-place in which Paul, during his stay there, rea- 
soned every day with them that met him (Acts 17:17), though of 
this we cannot be certain, for, while this was a market-place in the 
Roman period, the older market of the Athenian people lay to the 
westward of it. 

To the west of the acropolis lies the old Areopagus, or Mars’ 
Hill (Fig. 273), from which it was long supposed that Paul 
made the address recorded in Acts 17 : 22-31. Ramsay,' following 
Curtius, has made it probable that the address was delivered to the 
city-fathers of Athens, not because they were putting Paul to a 
judicial trial, but because they wished to see whether he was to be 
allowed to teach Christianity, which they took for a new philosophy, 
in the univeristy of Athens—for Athens itself was a kind of univer- 
sity. It seems probable that the meetings of the city-fathers, who 
were collectively called the Areopagus (Acts 17 : 22), were held not 
on the top of the rock, but in the market-place. The Athenian altar 
“to an unknown god” is treated in Part II, Chapter XXX, § 2. 

2. Corinth From Athens, Paul went to Corinth, where he spent 
a year and a half (Acts 18:1, 11). Corinth was one of the old 
cities of Greece. In Homeric and earlier times it appears to have 
been subject to Argos. Situated on the isthmus between northern 
Greece and the Peloponnesus, the sea-trade of Corinth made it an 
important city. It rose to prominence in the seventh century 
before Christ. At some early time foreigners from the east, prob- 
ably Phcenicians, had settled in Corinth and established the worship 
of the Semitic goddess Astarte on Acro-Corinthus, a hill that rises 
some five hundred feet above the city. The goddess was here 
known as Aphrodite,? and the debasing character of her worship 
tended to foster that lack of sensitiveness in matters of social moral- 
ity with which Paul deals in his First Epistle to the Corinthians. 
The trade of Corinth made it rich and its riches excited the enmity 


1 Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller and Roman Citizen, New York, 1896, 243, ff. 
2 See Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, 11, Oxford, 1896, 618-699. 


ee ne ee ne ee See 


-_ 


ATHENS, CORINTH, CHURCHES OF ASIA 237 


of Rome. It was accordingly destroyed by the Romans in 146 B.c., 
but a century later was rebuilt by Julius Cesar. Ancient Corinth 
has now entirely vanished. 

Excavations were begun at Corinth by the American School of 
Classical Studies at Athens in 1896 under the direction of the late 
Prof. Rufus B. Richardson. The work has been carried forward 
season by season ever since.!_ Although there were no topographical 
indications to help the excavators at the start, the theater, the 
Agora or market-place, a Roman street, the road to Lecheum, 
and the temple of Apollo have been discovered; (Figs. 274, 276). 

Of greatest interest to the student of the Bible is a stone dis- 
covered in 1898 on the Lechzum road near the propylea, or gate- 
way leading to the market-place. This stone once formed the lintel 
of a door and bore an inscription in Greek letters. Although the 
beginning and the end of the two words written on it are broken 
away, it is clear that the inscription was “Synagogue of the He- 
brews.”? The cutting of the letters was poorly done, and the block 
was a second-hand one, adapted from some other use. It seems 
probable, therefore, that the Jewish community at Corinth was not 
wealthy. The block was of considerable size and so was probably 
found not far from where the synagogue stood. If so, this syna- 
gogue, which is probably identical with the one in which Paul 
preached (Acts 18 : 4), stood on the Lecheum road not far from the 
market-place. Other discoveries in the neighborhood indicate that 
this was a residence quarter of the city, and we learn from Acts 
18 : 7 that the house of Titus Justus, where apparently Paul organ- 
ized the first church in Corinth, “joined hard to the synagogue.” 
The house of Justus must, then, have been here, and the Lecheum 
road often echoed to the footsteps of Paul. Probably the judg- 
ment-seat to which the Jews dragged Paul for the hearing before 
Gallio (Acts 18 : 12) was in the market-place, so that the excava- 
tions have revealed to us the parts of Corinth of special interest to a 
reader of the Bible. 

3. The Churches of Asia. 

(1) Ephesus was situated on the Cayster river in western Asia 
Minor, about three miles from the sea, but in ancient times the sea 
was navigable up as far as the city. Cities which form the point of 


1See American Journal of Archeology, 2d series, II, 133, f.; III, 204, f.; IV, 306, f.; VI, 306, f., 
439, f.; X, 17, f., and XIV, 19, f. : ’ 
2See Benjamin Powell in American Journal of Archeology, 2d series, VII, 60, f., and Fig. 275. 


238 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


contact between land and sea traffic become in most countries 
populous and wealthy. In western Asia Minor four cities, situated 
at the mouths of the four river valleys through which caravans 
could proceed into the interior, became populous and important. 
These were Miletus (see Acts 20:15, 17, f.) at the mouth of the 
Meander, Ephesus at the mouth of the Cayster, Smyrna at the 
mouth of the Hermus, and Pergamum on the Caicus. In the earliest 
times known to us Ephesus was eclipsed in importance by Miletus, 
but before the beginning of the Christian era Ephesus had out- 
stripped her rival. This was due to several causes, one of which was 
the partial silting up of the harbor of Miletus. In Roman times 
Ephesus lay on the great line of communication between Rome and 
the East in general.’ In later centuries the harbor of Ephesus was 
in its turn silted up, and the site is now deserted except for a neigh- 
boring wretched Turkish village. 

In Homer’s J/zad? the Carians are called the “barbarous-speaking 
Carians.” ‘This would indicate that they were not Greek, and it is 
thought by some that they may at this time have been of Hittite 
stock. Miletus was in Caria, and at that time Ephesus also. It 
is certain that the earliest inhabitants of Ephesus were not Greek, 
but of Asiatic origin. They established here, either on a mountain 
top about five miles from the sea, just above the modern railway 
station of Ayassuluk, or on a mountain a little to the south, the 
worship of an Asiatic goddess, probably Hittite. Later, in the 
seventh century before Christ, the Ionian Greeks came and settled 
among the Asiatics. They identified the goddess with their own 
Artemis (Authorized Version, Diana), and moved her temple down 
into the plain,’ where it continued to stand far into Christian times. 
In the sixth century B. c. Ephesus was conquered by the Lydians, 
and then by the Persians. In later centuries it passed under the 
control of Alexander the Great, of the Seleucid of Syria, and of the 
kings of Pergamum. In 133 B. c. it passed with the rest of the 
kingdom of Pergamum into the hands of Rome and became a part 
of the Roman Province of Asia. Because of its situation it quickly 
became the most important city of the province. It was noted for 
its wealth and its commerce. Rome became the patron of Hellenic 
culture in the East, so Ephesus was, of course, made an architectur- 
ally beautiful city. 


1See Ramsay’s article “Ephesus” in Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. II, p. 721, f., for 
further details. 
2 Book II, 1. 868. 3 See Hogarth’s Ionia and the East, Oxford, 1909, p. 45, f. 


ATHENS, CORINTH, CHURCHES OF ASIA 239 


At first Pergamum was the capital of the Province of Asia. In 
the second and third centuries of the Christian era Ephesus had be- 
come the capital. Buchner! thinks that this transfer was made in 
the reign of Claudius, 41-54 a.p. If this were true, Ephesus was the 
capital of the province at the time of Paul’s residence there, but thére 
is considerable doubt about the facts, and in the beginning of the 
second century A. D. Pergamum still ranked as the official capital.? 

The temple of Artemis lay about two miles to the northeast of the 
ancient city. Its site was determined in 1869 by the English ex- 
plorer, J. T. Wood, who partially excavated it (1869-1874).3 
Wood brought to light various marble fragments which are pre- 
served in the British Museum, but he was more interested in making 
conjectural restorations of the temple than in telling what he found. 
As he was not an expert in ancient architecture his work is, accord- 
ingly, unsatisfactory. In 1904-1905, the British Museum employed 
Mr. Hogarth to complete the excavation of the site. Hogarth car- 
ried the excavation down to the virgin soil, and, being a skilled 
archeologist, he was able to reconstruct the history of the building.‘ 

There seems to have been a small tree shrine on the site of the 
temple before the Ionians came. Between the seventh century and 
the fifth, three different structures were erected on the spot. The 
last of these was called the temple of Croesus, because this king of 
Lydia presented some beautiful columns to it, though the structure 
was not completed till a century after his time, or 4308. c. This 
structure was burned in 356 B. c. on the night that Alexander the 
Great was born. Later a larger temple, 425 by 220 feet, was built 
on the site, with the help of contributions from the whole of Asia. 
This was standing until long after Paul’s time. It was very beau- 
tiful. Some of the porphyry columns now in Santa Sophia at Con- 
stantinople are said to have been taken from it. It has been 
thought by some that this beautiful temple suggested to Paul 
his figure in 1 Cor. 3 : 10-17, since the words were written from 
Ephesus. 

This temple was venerated over all of western Asia Minor. To 
it came many pilgrims every year, to whom Ephesian silversmiths 
sold little replicas of the temple. It was because Christianity 
became so popular through the preaching of Paul that the profitable 


1See De Neocoria, p. 38. 

2See Ramsay in Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, III, 750. ~ 
3 Wood, Discoveries at Ephesus, London, 1877. See Fig. 279. 
4 Hogarth, Excavations at Ephesus, London, 1908. 


240 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


sale of these shrines was interfered with, that the riot in Ephesus 
occurred as described in Acts 19 : 23-41. 

Before Mr. Wood had discovered the site of the temple he had 
discovered the theater within the limits of the ancient city. This 
has been examined more thoroughly by the Austrian, Dr. Wiberg, 
who, beginning in 1894, conducted excavations at Ephesus for many 
years. All the lower parts of this theater still remain (see Figs. 280, 
281) and bring vividly to the imagination the assembly held in it on 
the occasion of the riot just referred to. (See Acts 19 : 29-41.) 
The Austrians have also laid bare a considerable part of the central 
street of the Ephesus of Roman times; (see Fig. 278). 

A little to the north of the theater is the ancient stadium. Some 
scholars think that when Paul says in 1 Cor. 15 : 32, “If after the 
manner of men I fought with beasts at Ephesus,” he is speaking of 
an incident that literally occurred, and suppose that he was actu- 
ally condemned to be thrown to the beasts in the stadium, to make a 
spectacle for the Ephesian populace, and that in some way he es- 
caped alive. It is possible that this may be true. If so, this sta- 
dium (see Fig. 282) presents to the eye a spot which is of great in- 
terest to every Christian. 

Ephesus, as the mother-church of the churches of Asia, is the first 
one to which in the book of Revelation a letter is addressed. By 
the time Revelation was written the first glow of Christian enthusi- 
asm had worn off, gnostic heresy had found a place in the Church, 
and its “first love” was gone. 

(2) Pergamum, the modern Bergama, lay in the valley of the 
Caicus in Mysia, about fifteen miles from the sea. The city was 
built on a hill about three miles north of the river. It was appar- 
ently a place of some importance at a comparatively early date, 
but its chief importance began with the reign of Phileterus, who 
made it an independent kingdom and ruled it from 284-263 B. c. 
Phileterus had been a trusted servant of Lysimachus, King of 
Thrace, one of the trusted generals of Alexander the Great. Under 
the dynasty founded by Philetzrus, Pergamum became one of the 
chief seats of Hellenic culture. Eumenes I (263-241 B. c.) endeav- 
ored to make Pergamum a rival of Alexandria as a literary center, 
and when the king of Egypt forbade the exportation of papyrus in 
order to check the literary aspirations of Pergamum, the servants 
of Eumenes invented a prepared kind of skin on which to write. 
It was called pergamena, but time has corrupted it to “parchment.” 


ee Te 


ATHENS, CORINTH, CHURCHES OF ASIA 241 


In the course of the second century before Christ the kingdom of 
Pergamum included all of western Asia Minor north of the Taurus. 
When in 133 B. c. Attalus III, the last of the kings of Pergamum, 
died, he left his kingdom by will to the Roman republic, with which 
Pergamum had long been in alliance. Rome thus came into pos- 
session of her Province of Asia, the first of her Oriental provinces. 
Pergamum was its capital, certainly until the reign of Claudius, and 
probably until the second century A. p. The Romans regarded 
themselves as the patrons of Hellenic culture in the East and for 
centuries kept Pergamum the beautiful city which the Pergamene 
kings had made it. Bergama, the squalid modern Turkish city, 
lies apart from the splendid ruins of the ancient town; (see F ig. 
283). 

More than thirty years ago the Germans began to explore and 
to excavate at Pergamum,! and the Museum at Berlin is enriched 
with many beautiful objects found there. The visitor to Perga- 
mum may still see, however, the great gymnasium with many grace- 
ful columns still standing. Above it, ona higher slope, are the sites 
of theaters and temples, and the great altar of Zeus. Farther 
up the hill stood the temple of Athenz Polias, which was also a 
library, and above this the temple of Rome and of Augustus. 

In Rev. 2 : 13 the church at Pergamum is said to dwell where 
“Satan’s throne is.” Interpreters have been divided in opinion 
as to whether this is a reference to the worship of Aésculapius, or to 
the presence of the great throne-like altar of Zeus, or to the fact that 
Pergamum was the seat of the worship of the Roman emperor.? 
On the whole, it seems probable that ‘“‘Satan’s throne” is a reference 
to the fact that Pergamum was the seat of the government and of 
the worship of the emperor of Rome. When Augustus inaugurated 
emperor-worship in order to give the empire a bond of common sen- 
timent, the first temple of the cult was erected at Pergamum. 
This was in 29 B.c. Under Vespasian and his successors it became 
a test of one’s Christianity whether he would or would not? offer 
incense to the statue of the emperor, and Christians were often 
persecuted because they would not. It is probable that in the 


1See Couze (and others), Ausgrabungen 2u Pergamos, Berlin, 1880, and Thrimer, Pergamos, | 
Leipzig, 1888; also F. E. Clark, The Holy Land of Asia Minor, New York, 1914, pn, 67, f. 

2 See Bousset, Die Offenbarung des Johannes, Gottingen, 1896, p. 245, ff.; Ramsay, The Letters 
to the Seven Churches, New York, 1905, 283, ff., and Moffat in The Expositor’s Greek Testament, 
Vol. V, New York, 1910, p. 355, f. 

*See Ramsay, The Church and the Roman Empire, New York, 1893, p. 252, f. 


242 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


remains of the temple to the emperor archeologists have brought 
to light Satan’s throne. If, however, that throne were the altar of 
Zeus, it has nevertheless been brought to light. 

(3) Thyatira, the modern Ak-Hissar, lay in a valley which joined 
the valley of the Hermus to the valley of the Caicus. The general 
direction of this valley was north and south. It was made an im- 
portant city by Seleucus I of Syria (312-282 B. c.) in the latter part 
of his reign. Before this it had been an obscure village. Josephus 
declares! that Seleucus made Jews citizens of the cities which he 
founded in Asia, and apparently Thyatira was one of these, for 
there appears to have been a flourishing Jewish colony there. A 
little later than Seleucus, Thyatira became a city of Pergamum, 
and passed in 133 B. c. with the territories of that realm under the 
dominion of Rome. Thyatira was noted for its dyeing. Madder 
root, with which they dyed a Turkey-red, grows abundantly in the 
neighborhood.” As the ancients employed the names of colors with 
great laxity, this was often termed purple. Lydia, an enterprising 
seller of this purple, a Jewess from Thyatira, was present at Philippi 
when Paul and Silas preached there (Acts 16:14). Lydia was 
converted, and perhaps it was she who carried the Gospel back to 
Thyatira. Nothing has been discovered at Thyatira that throws 
light on the message to its church in Rev. 2 : 18-29. 

(4) Sardis was one of the oldest cities of western Asia. It is 
situated on the south side of the great valley of the Hermus, just 
at the point where the river Pactolus issues from the Tmolus moun- 
tains. Pottery found in the course of excavations there carries its 
history back to sub-Mycenzan, if not to Mycenzan, times.? It 
was the seat of the worship of Atys or Cybele, a goddess that seems 
to have been kindred to the mother-goddess of the Hittites. It is 
probable that, could we penetrate back far enough, we should find 
that the place was once occupied by Hittites. Herodotus traces the 
descent of the first dynasty that ruled over the country to the god- 
dess just mentioned.* Following this dynasty was, he says, another 
of twenty-one kings who ruled before the dynasty founded by Gyges. 
The Lydian kingdom of which we know began with Gyges in 697 
B. Cc. and ended with Crcesus in 546 8B. c. Lydian inscriptions found 
at Sardis are written in the same alphabet as Etruscan inscriptions 


1 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XII, iii, 1. 

4See Ramsay, Letters to the Seven Churches, p. 325, ff. 

‘ies eile in American Journal of Archeology, 2d series, Vol. XVIII, 1914, p. 428. 
4 Book I, 7, 


rae 


a 


ATHENS, CORINTH, CHURCHES OF ASIA 243 


foundinItaly. This indicates that the Lydians and Etruscans were 
closely akin, but, as the inscriptions have not yet been deciphered, 
they do not throw much light on either people! It is possible that 
both peoples were related to the Hittites, but that is at present only 
a hypothesis. 

The mountains to the south of Sardis are composed largely of 
gravel deposits left there by the melting of the glaciers at the end of 
the last glacial period. From these gravels the Pactolus brought 
down gold in ancient times. This was one of the sources of the 
wealth of the Lydian kings, and contributed to those riches which 
are still celebrated in the saying: “‘As rich as Croesus.” 

The Lydian kingdom fell when Cyrus captured Sardis in 546 
B.C. With the fall of the Persian empire the city passed into the 
hands of Alexander the Great, and subsequently into the hands of 
his general, Antigonous, then to the Seleucide of Syria, then to the 
kings of Pergamum, and so to the dominion of Rome. 

In 17 a. D. Sardis was shaken by a great earthquake which nearly 
destroyed the city. A mass of gravel and conglomerate rock was 
then hurled from the hill of the Acropolis of Sardis down into the 
city toward the temple, where the work of the excavator shows that 
it still lies? A part of the city must have been buried under it. 
The city recovered from this disaster and by the end of the first 
century a Christian church existed there (Rev. 3:1-6). Sardis 
continued to be a city of importance until 1400-1403 a. p., when the 
Tartar conqueror, Timur or Tamerlane, swept over the country 
destroying everything before him. From this destruction Sardis 
never recovered. Two or three tiny wretched Turkish villages are 
now all that occupy the spot.’ 

The Acropolis of Sardis was composed of gravel and a compara- 
tively soft conglomerate rock. It looks imposing and in ancient 
times looked far more imposing than now. It has been gradually 
crumbling away through the centuries. Ramsay thinks that this 
instability on the part of the city itself is alluded to in the words, 
“thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art dead” and in the 
exhortation to be watchful and to strengthen the things that remain, 
which follows it (Rev. 3:1, 2); (see Fig. 284). 

Excavations were begun at Sardis by Princeton University under 
the direction of Prof. Howard Crosby Butler in 1909, and the dig- 


1See Herbig’s article, “Etruscan Religion,” in Hastings’ Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, 
Vol. V, New York, 1912, p. 532, ff. 

2 American Journal of Archeology, Vol. XVII,.1912, p. 474. 

3 Barton, A Year’s Wandering in Bible Lands, 76-79. 


244 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


ging continued for five seasons until interrupted by the great war.’ 
The work began at the point where two columns of the ancient tem- 
ple of Cybele were still protruding from the soil. The temple has 
been cleared and a considerable area around it has been examined. 
It appears that the temple was built in the fourth century B. C., 
that it suffered greatly in the earthquake of 17 a. D., and never was 
as splendid afterwards, though it was still in use in the second 
century A. D2 Many objects have been discovered which throw 
light upon the history and art of Lydia, and two bi-lingual inscrip- 
tions, one Lydian and Aramaic, the other Lydian and Greek, were 
found. These may afford the key to the decipherment of both 
Lydian and Etruscan. Jewelry resembling Etruscan jewelry 
found in Italy was also discovered.? 

To the student of the Bible the most interesting discovery at 
Sardis was a little Christian church built at the southeast corner 
of the temple. The entrance to this church was from the temple 
platform itself. The structure was entirely of brick and was in a 
remarkably good state of preservation. The building had appar- 
ently lost only its wooden roof. The apse of the church was 
toward the east, and still contained its primitive altar. It is un- 
certain at what date altars became a part of Christian worship. 
Origen in the third century A. D. admits the charge of Celsus that 
the Christians had no visible altar,> but Eusebius® in the next cen- 
tury speaks as though altars existed throughout the Christian world. 
This church at Sardis was built after the temple of Cybele had 
fallen into disuse, and even if not earlier than the fourth century of 
our era, this little structure is evidence that the name of the church 
had not been blotted out of the book of life (Rev. 3 : 5), but that it 
had rather appropriated to itself the once splendid precincts of the 
ancient heathen goddess. 

(5) Philadelphia was situated twenty-eight miles east of Sardis, 
and lay in the valley of the Cogamis, a tributary of the Hermus. 
It is still a flourishing city of about 15,000 inhabitants. It is now 
called Ala-Sheher.’? It is not to be confounded with the Philadel- 
phia of the Decapolis in Palestine.® 

1 See Howard Crosby Butler, Sardis, Leyden, 1922. 

2 Amer. Jour. of Arch., XV, 452. 

3 Ibid., XV, 457. 

4 Tbid., XVI, 475, ff., and Fig. 286. 

5 See “Altar (Christian)” in Hastings’ Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, Vol. I, p. 338, f. 

6 Ecclesiastical History, X, 4. 


7See Barton, A Year’s Wandering in Bible Lands, p. 71. 
8 See Chapter XIV, p. 233, f. 


ATHENS, CORINTH, CHURCHES OF ASIA 245 


Philadelphia was founded by Attalus II, King of Pergamum, 
159-138 B. c., who was called Philadelphus because of his devotion 
to his predecessor and brother, Eumenes II. Hence the city was 
named Philadelphia. It was founded for the purpose of spreading 
Hellenism in the eastern part of Lydia, and so was a missionary city 
from the first. With the other Pergamene territories it became a 
dependency of Rome in 133 8B. c. In 17 a. p. it suffered severely © 
from the same earthquake that destroyed Sardis. Indeed, at 
Philadelphia the quakings were even more severe. The trembling 
of the earth lasted for a long time. When Strabo wrote in 20 A. pD. 
earthquake shocks at Philadelphia were an every-day occurrence. 
Few people lived in the city; most of the inhabitants spent their time 
outside. Allusion to this is, perhaps, made in Rev. 3:12: “he 
shall go out thence no more.” 

After the earthquake the city appealed to Rome for help. Tibe- 
rius granted it and also permitted the city to change its name to 
Neocesarea, or the city of the young Cesar.? This, too, seems to be 
alluded to in Rev. 3 : 12, where another new name is to be conferred. 

At Ala-Sheher a part of the city wall of Philadelphia may still be 
traced, and the sites of the acropolis, the theater, and the stadium 
may also be seen, as well as the ruins of an old Christian church.® 

(6) Smyrna, at the mouth of the Hermus, is one of the very old 
cities of Asia Minor. A colony of AZolian Greeks founded a city 
here more than a thousand years before Christ. A little later the - 
place was captured by Ionian Greeks, who held it till about 600. c., 
when it was conquered by the kings of Lydia and destroyed. For 
three hundred years the name designated a district rather than a 
city. Lysimachus, the general of Alexander the Great who became 
king of Thrace (301-282 B. c.), refounded Smyrna as a Greek city 
about three miles southwest of the old site, and it has continued 
ever since to be an important seaport of Asia Minor. It passed 
with the other cities of the region successively under the sway of 
the kings of Syria, the kings of Pergamum, and of Rome. Smyrna 
is today one of the largest cities of the East with a population of 
between two and three hundred thousand. 

Smyrna claimed to be the birthplace of Homer. A¥lius Aristides 
(born 117 a. D.), who lived at Smyrna, several times likens the city 


1 Ramsay, Letiers to the Seven Churches, 407, ff. 

2 Tbid., 410, fi. 

? See Curtius, Philadelphia, Berlin, 1873, and Barton, A Year’s Wandering in Bible Lands, 79, ff. 
Ramsay, Leiters to the Seven Churches, 25, 1. 


246 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


to a crown, and apparently the crown was in some way associated 
with Smyrna; (see Fig. 287). The goddess of the place, who was 
a kind of Cybele, is pictured as wearing a crown.! This is,no doubt, 
the reason why in Rev. 2:10 a crown of life is promised to the 
church of Smyrna if she is faithful. No excavations have been 
made at Smyrna, but above the city the tomb of Polycarp,? said in 
tradition to have been a disciple of the Apostle John, is shown. 
Polycarp was martyred in 155 A. D. in one of those times of tribula- 
tion predicted in Rev. 2 : 10. 

(7) Laodicea is situated a hundred miles east of Ephesus, in the 
valley of the Lycus, where the Lycus empties into the Meander. 
It was founded by Antiochus II of Syria, 261-246 B. c.,? and named 
for his wife. Like Philadelphia, it was designed to be a missionary 
of Hellenism to the country of the region. Like the other Hellenic 
cities it was beautified with temples, theaters, and colonnaded 
streets. Later Laodicea passed under the control of Pergamum, and 
with that kingdom fell to Rome in 133 8.c. An influential element 
in its population was Jewish, and before Paul’s imprisonment in 
Rome a Christian church had been founded there (Col. 4:13). | 
The city of Laodicea appears to have been devoted to commerce and 
to material things. In Rev. 3:15 its church is said to have been 
lukewarm. Except that its lukewarmness may have come from its 
commercial spirit, there is nothing in the history or archeology of 
the city that illustrates the letter* to it in Rev. 3 : 14-22. 

The site of Laodicea is now almost deserted. Only the wretched 
Turkish village of Eski Hissar represents habitation, but hundreds 
of acres are covered with the ruins of the once splendid city. For 
hundreds of years the villagers of neighboring hamlets have used 
the place as a quarry, but nevertheless its ruins are impressive. 
Two theaters are in a fairly good state of preservation; the seats are 
still in place.5 The stadium is in a similar condition of preserva- 
tion. Its aqueduct and its gates are still imposing in their dilapi- 
dation, but the desolation of Laodicea recalls the words: “I will 
spew thee out of my mouth” (Rev. 3 : 16); (see Fig. 288). 


1See Ramsay, Letters to the Seven Churches, 257 and 274, ff. 

2See Barton, A Year’s Wandering in Bible Lands, p. 82. 

8See Ramsay, The Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, Oxford, 1895, p. 32, f. 
See Ramsay, Letters to the Seven Churches, 424, ff. 

5 See F. E. Clark, The Holy Land of Asia Minor, New York, 1914, p. 145, f. 


4 
7 net dail 

ee wast ie, y 
ars ay west 
rd » det 
. Yael 

OF ay, x [x 

ee 


PART II 


TRANSLATIONS OF ANCIENT DOCUMENTS 
WHICH CONFIRM OR ILLUMINATE THE 
BIBLE ie. | 


247 


oe 2 ae 


FOREWORD 


As noted in the Preface, the inferences drawn by different schol- 
ars, when they compare the Bible with the records brought to light 
by exploration, diverge according as their critical and theological 
views differ. In the comments made throughout Part II, as in 
Part I, the writer has endeavored to maintain a neutral attitude 
and impartially to report in each case the principal inferences 
drawn by the most important groups of scholars, that the reader 
may know something of the latitude of opinion that prevails. To 
have recorded every opinion would have expanded the work far 
beyond the limits prescribed, and would have burdened the reader 
with many views that are mere vagaries. The temptation is 
always strong to declare that the interpretation of an ancient 
record which accords with one’s own views must be right, but 
unfortunately problems in ancient history that are thus dogmat- 
ically settled do not remain settled. A deeper faith, confident in 
the ultimate triumph of truth, patiently awaits further light. 


249 


—- a sae TG te Ne 


tp a as eer ree 


¢ Liamal- 
Se eerayytrer, 
rn an da 
| ieee 


CHAPTER I 


AN EPIC OF THE CREATION WHICH CIRCULATED 
IN BABYLON AND ASSYRIA IN THE SEVENTH CEN- 
TURY BEFORE CHRIST! 


TEXT OF THE Epic. COMPARISON OF THE EPIC WITH THE First CHAPTER OF GENESIS, 
THE Epic AND OTHER PaRTS OF THE BIBLE. 


1. Text of the Epic. 
Tablet I 

1. Time was when above heaven was not named 

2. Below to the earth : no name was given. 

3. Then the primeval Abyss their begetter, 

4. The roaring Se who bore them,— 

5. Their waters together were mingled; 

6. No field had been formed, no marsh-land seen. 

7. When no gods had ever been honored, 

8. No name was formed no destiny fixed, 

9. Gods were created in their midst? 
10. Lakhmu and Lakhamu their associates were called. 
11. Together they became great, grew tall. 
12. Anshar and Kishar were born; they were greater than they. 
13. The days were prolonged, years passed; 
14, Anu their son was a rival of his fathers. 


15. Anshar made Anu, his firstborn, like himself, 
16. And Anu begat in his likeness Nudimmud? 


17. Nudimmud of his fathers became ruler, even he; 

18. Clever, wise, joyful, who grasped deep things, 
19. Stronger far than Anshar, the father who begat him, 
20. Not a rival has he among the gods his fathers. 


21. They stood; the gods asse~bled. 


10Other translations of this epic have been made. The most important are as follows: 
Zimmern, in Gunkel’s Schopfung und Chaos, pp. 401, ff.; Delitzsch, Das Babylonische Welt- 
schipfungsepos (Abhandlungen der sichsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, Bd. XVII, 
1896); Muss-Arnolt, in Assyrian and Babylonian Literature, Aldine ed., edited by R. F. Harper; 
Jensen in Schrader’s Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, Bd. VI; L. W. King, The Seven Tablets of 
Creation; Dhorme, Choix de textes religieux assyrobabyloniens; Ungnad, in Gressman’s Altorien- 
talische Texte und Bilder zum Alten Testament; Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament. 
D. D. Luckenbill translated in the American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, Vol. 
XXXVIII, pp. 14-26, the portions of the Epic discovered at Ashur and published by Ebeling in 
Keilschrifttexte aus Assur, Religions Inhalts; S. Lanedon, The Babylonian Epic of Creation, Ox- 
ford, 1923. A fragment of this tablet is shown in Fic, 290. 
* That is, Sea and Abyss, mentioned in lines 3 and 4. Apsu was the waters underneath the 
dry land and Tiamat the salt sea. 


mat gy aw — the olan 251 
2 = Rriemet- ocr 
3 Meelimnd = Ta 


252 ARCHAOLOGY AND ,THE BIBLE 


Az tha i 
22. They troubled Tiamat 
23. They troubled the body 
24. In agitation 

25. Apsu could not quiet 


26. Tiamat roared at their......... 


Lahm dhatamn 


o protect themselves they attacked (her), 


of Tiamat. 
he was enrolled among the great. 
their outcry; 


OC RO Ree > OC Oe ee 8 we wwe 


ye o's 6 2's bee ele aie © aoe #) ieee oe 


28. Their way was not good; they themselves prospered. 
29. Then Apsu, the begetter of the great gods, 

30. Cried to Mummu, his minister, and said, 

31. O Mummu, my minister, who delightest my heart, 


32. Come, unto Tidmat [let us go]. 


64. Sleep came upon him [Apsu] 
65. He put Apsu to rest, 

66. Mummu wandered about, 
67. He burst his bond, 

68. His lustre was gone 

69. He (Ea) had bewitched him; 
70. Mummu he bound, 

71, He placed himself on Apsu 
72. Mummu he grasped, 


1 Mummu is a personification of the roar of the 


fresh water. 


coer er wreoaevevvosveecereone 


ow eee pea ieee ee 


saw their plan 
comprehending all, sat. 
his holy witchcraft, 

and put it in water. 
resting, he sank down. 
pouring out sleep. 

with dress disordered (?), 
from his mouth......... 
he himself was prostrated. 
Apsu he had killed. 

over him stationed a guard, 
in a sitting posture, 

he held his massive form, 


ocean; Tiamat, of the salt water; Apsu, of the 


: 


AN EPIC OF THE CREATION | 253 


73. Both of them he had bound, he had destroyed, 

74. He established his triumph over his enemies. 

75. Amid the destruction he rested peacefully. 

76. He bound (?) him and cast Apsu down to the depths. 
77. On his body (?) he founded his luxurious palace; 
78. Lakhmu and Lakhamu his wife _ he placed as rulers over it, 

79. As guards of the domed abodes 

80. In the abode of the fates, the dwelling of destiny. 

81. The mighty one, the leader of the gods, Marduk (?) [said:] 

82. In the midst of the deep Anshar was born, 

83. In the holy deep Anshar was born, 

84. There begat him Lakhmu, his father, 

85. Lakhamu, his mother, conceived him, 

86. There nourished him milk flowing from goddesses. 

87. A marauder (?) approached him, _ terror filled him; 

88. Tall was his stature, brilliant the look of his eye, 

89. Troubled was his voice, his course was hither and thither. 
90. Lakhmu, who begat him, his father, saw him, 

91. Intelligently he looked, his heart was filled with joy, 

92. He saved him and an equal of the gods made him, 
93. He was greatly exalted over them who help Tidmat. 

94. Indescribable was his brilliance, unnumbered his...,........ 

Oo, Wothinkable his...:..:..... : difficult to look upon, 

96. Four eyes, four ears he had, 

97. His lips he opened, fire came forth 


. There grew four ears. 


. Four eyes like them were bright, 

. That one among the gods [his command was that] of Anu; 
BPA ORSPSNID (5 iodo oad os ok [is for] the preservation of life; 

. His crown shall shine brightly; he shall confound Tidmat. 


EE etre ss os asa t oehde canes: he shall cause fear, Atrtramchesn 
E65 a) 5 ha) sola ae < a's. cho e a’bige oe ah forever, the 


GOAN a Nive hoe d nah eden nivee dai evil. & Wenn 

oo oh te a a in opposition he spoke: y) ’ 
cc be ae cs we bes he conquered. is Ae Tiamat, | 
ee weeps and sits in tribulation. | 
i ce aa fear, 


Sos Te we shall not lie down [in peace]. 
Mss CG sas « Apsu and Mummu who were bound. 

LS aR Sa quickly thou shalt oppose (?) 
Pa 5a fess ss oo +s that we ourselves may rest. 

aes ee the fury of the lords (?).. 

PP hia wi hh ey ees 3 avenge them! 

0 cg a se ec ge ty the storm sos yaar 
oo LoS Oe ea the word of the bright god, 
OEE Sie what thou givest, we will indeed do! 

ol ace he ale the gods tne ye 2! te pt PO 
NE ee lk sc aie veg sce ces the gods [she] created. 

. They separated themselves, to the side of Tiamat they came; 

. They raged, they planned, they rested not night or day. 


. They prepared for battle, fuming, raging; 

. Their assemblage was formed and they began war. 
. Mother Khubury who formed all things, 

- Made unrivaled weapons, spawned great serpents, 


Machen sword bend chiri oNitane of LAW neler 


ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Sharp of tooth, unsparing of fang; 


. With poison instead of blood their bodies she filled. 

. Fierce dragons with terror she clothed, 

. Luster she made abundant, to loftiness made them equal. 
. Whoever beheld them, terror (?) overcame him; 

. Their bodies they reared up without turning their breast. 
. She established vipers, serpents, and Lakhami, 

. Hurricanes, raging hounds, scorpion-men, 

. Mighty storms, fish-men, and rams (?); 

. They bore merciless weapons, fearless of battle. 

. Her behests were mighty; without rival were they. 

. Moreover eleven such as these she created. 

. Among the gods, her firstborn, who at her side gathered, 
. She exalted Kingu, made him great in their midst, 

. To march before the forces, to lead the host, 

. To raise the conquering weapon, to lead the attack, 

. To direct the battle, as commander-in-chief; 

. To him she entrusted it, made him sit in purple (?): 

. “Thy spell I have uttered; in the assembly of gods I have made thee 


great. 


. The sovereignty of all the gods, I have placed in thy hand 

. Surely thou art exalted, my only spouse! 

. May they magnify thy name over all the Anunnaki.”? 

. She gave him the tablets of destiny, on his breast she laid them: 
. Thy command shall be unalterable, established, thy word.” 

. Now Kingu was exalted, he received the highest rank, 

. Among the gods, his sons, he fixed fate: 

. “The opening of your mouth shall quench the fire-god; 

. Who so is exalted in excellence, let him increase in might.” 


Tablet II 


. Tidmat made mighty her work 

. [Evil] she cherished against the gods, her offspring. 

. [To avenge] Apsu, Tiamat planned evil. 

. Her [forces] how she joined, to Ea was divulged. 

. Ea [{hearkened] to this thing, 

. He was thrown into [great] straits, he sat in silence. 
. [The days] went by; his anger was appeased, 

. [To the place] of Anshar, his father, he proceeded. 

. [He went] before the father who begat him, Anshar, 
. [All that] Tiamat had planned he repeated unto him. 
. “Tiamat, our mother, has come to hate us; 

. Her assembly is set; with rage she is hot; 

. Turned unto her are the gods, all of them, 

. With those ye created, they walk at her side. 

. They have separated themselves; at the side of Tiamat they go; 
. They rage, they plan; they rest not day or night.” 


(Lines 17-48 continue the literal repetition of lines 109-142 of the first tablet 
which was begun in lines 15, 16. After this the narrative continues:) 


1]. ¢., the spirits of earth. 


49. 
50. 
51 
52 
53 
54. 
55. 
56. 
Si. 
58. 


AN EPIC OF THE CREATION 255 


[When Anshar heard how Tiamat] was greatly in disorder, 

[He smote his breast], he bit his lip, 

[His mind was disturbed], his heart was not at rest, 

On So his cry was wrung from him. 
[Away Ea, my son, go forth to] battle! 

Thou art he who hast smitten [them]. 

[Mummu and] Apsu thou hast already struck down. 

[Kill also Kin]gu who comes up before her 

elt Ser 2 a deliberation. 


Me teh iy cs gi Ss sce gods Nudimmud. A [Abin 


& Wty 
(A break of ten or twelve lines occurs at this point in the eablet) hice A, ad 


. [Anshar] spoke to his son " word]: dupa Ie : 
. “Thou, this [son of mine], my warrior, 

. [Whose strength is mighty], whose attack irresistible, 

. [Go], stand before Tiamat, 

. [That] her wrath [may be appeased], her heart softened, 

. [But if] she will not hearken to thy word, 

. Our [word] shalt thou speak to her, that she may be appeased.” 

. [He heard] the utterance of his father Anshar, 

. He took the straight path to her, he entered the way. 

. Anu [drew near], he beheld the terror (?) of Tiamat, 

. [He did not ascend to her presence], but turned back, tad wns 
. [Then turned he to Ea and called] him, he, Anshar, gis 

. [Opened his mouth] and spoke to him, Ow 

. (“Hateful are the ways of Tiamat] to me.” TW" 


(Some twenty lines here are too fragmentary for translation.) Qaea 


. [Ea opened his mouth (?)] and spoke to him: 
. [‘“Marduk, my son, hear the word of] thy father. 

. Thou art he, my son, who canst enlarge his heart. 

Ok a to the battle draw nigh, 
se dc os cele [to] Emarukka! give peace.” 

. Then the lord rejoiced at the words of his father; 

. He drew near and stood before Anshar. 

- Anshar beheld him and his heart was filled with joy, 

. He kissed his lips and his fear departed from him. 

LOS eee re is not hidden; open thy lips. 

. Verily I will go, I will attain the wish of thy heart. 

A ere ee is not concealed; open thy lips. 

. Verily I will go, I will attain the wish of thy heart. 

. Who is the man, who would bring thee out to his battle? 

. [And now] shall Tiamat, a woman, come against thee with weapons? 
Ne oes ain ccon cic ein dle-o dowel duly a rejoice and exult; 

. On the neck of Tiamat thou shalt shortly tread. 

Ne 2 Lyles als ase big\wsacosno'e oie aloes rejoice and exult; 

. On the neck of Tiamat thou shalt shortly tread.” 

. “My son, who knows all wisdom, 

. Tiamat pacify with thy pure incantation. 

. Thy way speedily take; 

SR Ree; Thou shalt not fear, thou shalt return afterward.” 
. Then the lord rejoiced at the word of his father, 

. His heart exulted and to his father he spoke: 


hare VVLOnetuk + CO Auntie haan 


1 Another name for Tidmat. 


TV. Or 


Lane ARCH/OLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


. “O Lord of the gods, fate of the great gods, 


If I accomplish your preservation, 
Take Tiamat captive and save your lives, ; : 
Appoint an assembly, make my fate strong, let it come in. 


. In Upshukkunnaku seat yourselves joyfully together, 

. The word of my mouth shall determine fate instead of you. 
. Let there not be changed whatever I create, 

. May the command of my lips not be altered or opposed.” 


Tablet III 


. Anshar opened his mouth and said, 
. [To Gaga] his [messenger] a word he spoke: 


“{O Gaga, thou messen]ger, thou rejoicest my heart. 


. [To Lakhmu and Lakh]Jamu will I send thee; 
. [The desire of my heart] mayest thou attain. 


eeinedae kite Mt ik ee ee bring (?) before me. 


. [May there come] the gods, all of them, 

. [Let them prepare for converse], at banquets let them sit, 

. [Bread may they eat], wine may they prepare, 

. [For Marduk], their [avenger], let them decree the fate. 

. [Go, Ga]ga, before them stand, 

. [And all that] I tell thee repeat unto them 

. [Anshar], your son, hath sent me, 

. [The purpose of his heart he] hath disclosed to me, 

. [Saying]: Tiamat, who bore us, hates us, 

. An assemblage is appointed, angrily she rages, 

. Turned to her are the gods, all of them, 

. With those whom ye created, they march at her side, 

. They are rebellious, at Tidmat’s side they come, 

. They rage, they plot, they rest not day nor night, 

. They prepare for battle, fuming and raging, 

. An assembly is made, they start a revolt. 

. Mother Khubur, who formed all things, 

. Has made weapons without rival, has spawned monster-serpents, 
. Sharp of tooth, unsparing of fang, 

. With poison like blood their bodies she has filled;- 

. Fierce dragons with terror she has clothed, 

. Luster has made abundant, to loftiness made equal. 

. Whoever beholds them, terror (?) overcomes him. 

. Their bodies they raise up without turning their breasts. 

. She has established vipers, serpents, Lakhami, 

. Hurricanes, raging hounds, scorpion-men, 

. Mighty storms, fish-men, and rams; 

. They bear merciless weapons, fearless of battle. 

. Her behests are mighty, without rival are they. 

. Moreover eleven such as these she has created. 

. Among the gods, her firstborn, who are gathered at her side, 
. She has exalted Kingu, made him great in their midst, 

. To march before the forces, to lead the host, 

. To raise the conquering weapon, to lead the attack, 

. To direct the battle as commander-in-chief; 

. To him she has entrusted it, made him sit in purple, [saying,] 
. ‘Thy spell I have uttered, in the assembly of gods I have made thee 


great, 


a SS Se, ee 


AN EPIC OF THE CREATION 


. The sovereignty of all the gods I have placed in thy hand, 
. Surely thou art exalted, O my spouse! 

. May they magnify thy name over all the Anunnaki.’ 

. She has given him the tablets of destiny, on his breast has laid them, 


[saying,] 


- ‘Thy command shall be unalterable, established be thy word.’ 
. Now Kingu has been exalted, has received highest rank, 

. Among the gods, her sons, he fixes fate, [saying]: 

. “The opening of your mouth shall quench the fire-god, 

. Whoso is exalted in excellence, let him increase in might.’ 

- I sent Anu; he had no power before her, 

. Nudimmud feared and turned back, 

. Marduk has set forth, the leader of the gods, your son, 

. As a foe of Tiamat his heart prompts him to go. 

. He opened his mouth and spake to me, [saying]: 

. ‘If I accomplish your preservation, 

. Take Tiamat captive, and save your lives, 

. Appoint an assembly, make my fate strong, let it come in. 

. In Upshukkunaku seat yourselves joyfully together, 

. The word of my mouth shall determine fate instead of you. 

. Let there not be changed whatever I create, 

. May there not be altered or opposed the command of my lips.’ 
. Hasten, therefore, and quickly decree your fate, 

. That he may go and fight your strong enemy.” 

. Then Gaga went, his way he pursued, 

. To the place of Lakhmu and Lakhamu, the gods, his fathers; 
. He kissed the ground at their feet, 

- He bowed himself; he stood up, he addressed them, [saying]: 
. ‘Anshar, your son, hath sent me, 

. The purpose of his heart he has disclosed to me 

. Saying: Tiamat, who bore us, hates us; 

. An assemblage is appointed, angrily she rages, 

. Turned to her are the gods, all of them, 

. With those whom you created, they march at her side, 

. They are rebellious, at Tiamat’s side they come. 

. They rage, they plot, they rest not day nor night, 

. They prepare for battle, fuming and raging, 

. An assembly is made, they start a revolt. 

. Mother Khubur, who formed all things, 

- Has made weapons without rival, has spawned monster-serpents, 
. Sharp of tooth, unsparing of fang, 

. With poison like blood their bodies she has filled; 

. Fierce dragons with terror she has clothed; 

. Luster has been made abundant, to loftiness made equal. 

. Whoever beholds them, terror (?) overcomes him. 

. Their bodies they raise up without turning their breasts. 

. She has established vipers, serpents, Lakhami, 

. Hurricanes, raging hounds, scorpion-men, 

. Mighty storms, fish-men, rams; 

. They bear merciless weapons, fearless of battle. 

. Her behests are mighty, without rival are they. 

. Moreover eleven such as these she has created. 

. Among the gods, her firstborn, who are gathered at her side, 
. She has exalted Kingu, made him great in their midst, 

. To march before the forces, to lead the host, 


Om 


CONIA Un PD WD N= 


ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


. To raise the conquering weapon, to lead the attack, 

. To direct the battle as commander-in-chief; 

. To him she has entrusted it, made him sit in purple, [saying]: 

. ‘Thy spell I have uttered, in the assembly of the gods I have made thee 


great; 


. The sovereignty of all the gods I have placed in thy hand 

. Surely thou art exalted, O my spouse! 

. May they magnify thy name over all the Anunnaki.’ 

. She has given him the tablets of destiny, on his breast has laid them, 


[saying]: 


. ‘Thy command shall be unalterable, established be thy word.’ 
. Now Kingu has been exalted, has received highest rank, 

. Among the gods, her sons, he fixes fate, [saying:] 

. ‘The opening of your mouth shall quench the fire-god, 

. Whoso is exalted in excellence, let him increase in might.’ 

. I sent Anu, he had no power before her, 

. Nudimmud feared and turned back, 

. Marduk has set forth, the leader of the gods, your son, 

. As a foe of Tiamat his heart prompts him to go. 

. He opened his mouth and spake to me, [saying:] 

. ‘If I accomplish your preservation, 

. Take Tiamat captive and save your lives, 

. Appoint an assembly, make my fate strong, let it come in. 

. In Upshukkunaku seat yourselves joyfully together, 

. The word of my mouth shall determine fate instead of you, 
. Let there not be changed whatever I create, 

. May there not be altered or opposed the command of my lips.’ 
. Hasten, therefore, and quickly decree your fate, 

. That he may go and fight your strong enemy.” 

. Lakhmu and Lakhamu heard, they cried aloud; 

. The Igigi, all of them, wailed bitterly, [saying:] 

. “What has changed that they should desire to take us (?) 

. We do not understand what Tiamat has done.” 

. Then they massed themselves together, they went, 

. The great gods, all of them, who decree fate, 

. They entered in before Anshar, they filled, [Upshukkunaku]. 
. Brother kissed brother in the assembly................ 

. They prepared for converse, sat down to the banquet, 

. Bread they ate; wine they prepared. 

. The sweet drink confused their minds (?), 

. Drunk were they with drink, their bodies were filled (?), 

. They became very unsteady, their hearts were exalted, 

. For Marduk, their deliverer, they decreed the fate. 


Tablet IV 


. They prepared for him a princely chamber: 
. In the presence of his fathers for sovereignty he became mighty. 


[They said:] 


. “Thou art most honored among the great gods, 

. Thy destiny is without rival, thy command is Anu’s! 

. O Marduk, thou art most honored among the great gods, 
. Thy destiny is without rival, thy command is Anu’s! 

. From today without opposition shall be thy command; 

. To exalt and to abase is verily in thy power; 


te 


AN EPIC OF THE CREATION 259 


. Established is thy utterance, irresistible thy command. 

. None among the gods shall invade thy province. 

. Sustenance, the desire of shrines of the gods, 

. While they are in need, shall be certain in thy sanctuary! 

- O Marduk, thou art the preserver of our lives! 

. We give thee sovereignty over the totality of all the world. 

. Sit thou in the assembly, thy word shall be exalted! 

. Thy weapon shall never be o’ercome, may it destroy (?) thy foe! 

. O lord, he who trusts thee—his life save! 

. But the god that is wed to evil, its life pour out!” 

. Then they placed in the midst a garment, 

. And unto Marduk, their firstborn, they spoke, 

. “Thy fate, O Lord, let it be first among the gods! 

. To destroy and to create—speak, let it be established! 

. At thy command let a garment perish! 

. Again at thy command let the garment re-appear!” 

. Then he spake with his mouth, the garment perished; 

. Again he commanded and the garment was recreated. 

. As the utterance of his mouth the gods, his fathers, saw, 

. They rejoiced, they uttered blessing: “Marduk is king!” 

. They bestowed upon him the scepter, the throne, and the battle-axe; 
. They gave him an unrivaled weapon, which turns back (?) the foe. 

. “Go, Tiamat’s life cut off; 

- May the winds bear her blood to secret places!” 

. When the gods, his fathers had fixed Bel’s fate, 

. The way of prosperity and success they caused him to take. 

. His bow he prepared, his weapon he chose, 

. A spear he bound on him at his waist, 

. He raised the heavenly weapon, with his right hand grasped it, 

. His bow and quiver at his side he hung, 

. He placed the lightning before his face, 

. With quivering flame ne body he aa 

. He made a net to enclose Tiamat’s body, - 
. He caused the four winds to seize so that nothing of her could escape; LA» rine 
. The south wind, the north wind, the east wind, the west wind, ST el 
. He brought to the side of the net, the gift of his father Anu, 

. He made the evil wind, the bad wind, the tempest and the hurricane, 
. The four winds, the seven winds, the whirlwind (?), the unhealthy wind; 
- He brought forth the winds which he had made, the seven of them, 

. To trouble the inward parts of Tiamat, they came after him. 

. The lord raised up the tornado, his mighty weapon, 

. As a chariot, a storm unrivaled for terror he mounted, 

. He harnessed for himself and attached to it four steeds, 

. “Destroyer,” “Unmerciful,”’ “Overwhelmer,” ‘“Fleet-footed.” 

. [Foam-covered (?)] were their teeth, filled with poison, 

. Skilled were they [to run down], taught to destroy. 

EA ett kc ye Us. as a os rete wd ale mighty in battle, 

» Left and right they opened (?).............. 

. His garment was [rage], with terror was he clad, 

. With his overpowering brightness his head was crowned. 

. He made straight the way, he took his path, 

. To the place of Tiamat, the raging (?), his face he set. 

MSAD TU ole pe Se can eg ta he cursed (?), 

. A plant of magical power (?)—he seized with his hand. 

- On that day they exalted (?) him, the gods exalted (?) him; 


ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


. The gods, his fathers, exalted (?) him, the gods exalted (?) him. 
. The lord approached, the waist of Tid4mat he scanned, 

. Of Kingu, her spouse—he beheld his terrifying-glance (?). 

. As Marduk gazed, Kingu’s progress was impeded, 

. Destroyed was his purpose, frustrated his deed, 

. And the gods his helpers, who marched at his side, 

. Saw the warrior and leader; their look (?) was troubled. 

. Tiamat perceived it (?); she did not turn her neck. 

. With proud (?) lips she uttered words of defiance: 

. “Who decreed (?) that thou shouldst come as lord of the gods? 
. Have they assembled from their places, are they to serve thee?” 
. The lord raised the tornado, his mighty weapon, 

. [Against] Tidmat who was raging, thus he spoke: 

. “(Why hast thou] made thyself great? Exalted thyself on high? 
. [Why does thy heart] prompt thee to battle (?) 

. [How can thy helpers] defy (?) the gods, their fathers? 

. [Why] dost thou hate their [command], their rulle despise]? 

. [Why hast thou exalted Kingu] to be thy spouse? 

. [Hast given] him the functions of deity? 

. [How] canst thou seek after evil? 

. [And against] the gods, my fathers, thy evil plan devise? 

. [Let] thy forces be joined, girded on thy weapons! 

. Stand! I and thou—come let us fight!” 

. Tiamat, when she heard this, 

. Was like one possessed; she lost her reason. 

. Tiamat cried out vehemently with high voice, 

. Like roots divided in twain her legs trembled. 

. She uttered an incantation, she cast a charm, 

. And the gods of battle demanded their weapons. 

. Then took their stand Tiamat and the leader of the gods, Marduk; 
. For the fight they approached, for the battle they drew near. 

. The lord spread out his net and enclosed her, 

. The evil wind from behind he thrust into her face. 

. As Tidmat opened her mouth to its full extent, 

. The evil wind he drove in, so that her lips could not close. 

. With the mighty winds he filled her belly; 

. Her courage was taken away, and she opened her mouth. 

. He let fall the spear, he burst open her belly, 

. He cut through her inward parts, he pierced her heart, 

. He bound her and her life destroyed; 

. Her body he cast down, upon it he stood. 

. After Tiamat, the leader, he had slain, 

. Her army he broke, her host was scattered, 

. And the gods, her helpers, who marched by her side, 

. Trembled, feared, they turned their backs; 

. They sought an exit, to save their lives; 

. With a cordon they were encompassed; escape was not possible. 
. He caught them, their weapons he broke, 

. Into the net they fell, in the snare they remained. 

. All quarters of the world they filled with lamentation. 

. His wrath they endured; they were held in bondage. 

. And the eleven creatures, whom she had filled with terribleness, 
. The troop of demons who marched as her helpers (?), 

. He threw into fetters, their power he [broke]; 

. Along with their opposition he trampled them under his feet. 


AN EPIC OF THE CREATION 261 


. And Kingu who had been exalted over them, 

. He took captive, as the god Dugga he counted him. 

- He took from him the tablets of destiny, not rightly his, 

. He sealed them with a seal, in his own breast he laid them. 

. After his enemies he had seized and destroyed, 

. His arrogant foe had completely humiliated (?), 

- The triumph of Anshar over the foe had fully established, 

. The wish of Nudimmud had accomplished, Marduk, the warrior 
. Over the bound gods strengthened his hold, 

. Unto Tiamat, whom he had bound, he turned back. 

. The lord trod upon Tidmat’s feet 

. And with his unsparing weapon crushed her head. 

. He cut through the veins of her blood, 

- He caused the north wind to bear it to secret places. 

. His fathers saw it; they rejoiced, they exulted, 

. Gifts and presents they brought unto him. 

. Then the lord rested; he gazed upon her body, 

. The flesh of the monster he divided; he formed a cunning plan. 
- He split her open like a flat fish into two halves, 

. One half of her he established and made a covering of the heavens, 
. He drew a bolt, he established a guard, 

. And not to let her waters come out, he commanded. 

. He passed through the heavens, he surveyed the regions, 

. Over against the deep he set the dwelling of Nudimmud. 

. The structures of the deep the lord measured, 

. As a palace like unto it he founded Esharra. 

- In the palace Esharra which he built in the heavens, 

. He caused Anu, Ellil, and Ea at their stations to dwell. 


Tablet V Olesen ream 


- He [Marduk] ordained the stations of the great gods; 
. As stars their likenesses as constellations of the zodiac he placed. 

. He ordained the year, into parts he divided it, 

. For the twelve months he established three stars. 

. After the days of the year he had fashioned as images, 


He founded the station of Jupiter, to determine their bounds; 
That none might go wrong or err, 


. The station of Bel he established, and Ea by his side. 

. He opened gates on both sides. 

. A lock he made strong on the left and the right, 

. In the midst thereof he placed the zenith; 

. The moon-god he caused to shine; the night he entrusted to him. 

. He appointed him a being of the night, to determine the days; 

. Monthly, without ceasing, into a crown he made him, [saying:] 

. “At the beginning of the month shine upon the lands, 

. Horns exhibit, to determine six days; 

. On the seventh day let the tiara disappear; 

. On the fourteenth day thou shalt stand over against the [two] halves. 
. When the sun-god on the horizon........... thee, 

Pe BO Ai aks ye to be resplendent, and thou shalt turn (?) backward (?) 


ee 


262 


25: 
26. 


ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


ayy, he a6 wei sone ele ie teehee ees ner are to destroy, 


” 
P08 06008 80 8 55 4 0b Oy 6 ew 6 ese lele ens 6 oi nee) anh entttat ie meena me. 


(Some lines are lost at this point. It is estimated that forty of them are 
lacking.) 


. In Esagilaty 00500. 5. TAG eee 
- Lo establish. :.0.34, (ose oe 


- The great gods... 5.050505 os cou 

.. Lhe gods: /i.5c05 se eae 

oi, Fe received Ae. 5 . 04 cae 

. The net which he had made the [great] gods saw, 

. Saw the bow, how skillful [its workmanship]; 

. The work which he had done, they [loudly] praised. 

. Then arose Anu in the assembly of the [great] gods, 

. The bow he kissed it. 2... 25.1.) Aa 

. “Long-wood shall be one name, and a second...........ceeee 
. Its third name shall be Bow-star in the heavens.” 

. He fixed its position [unto distant days]. 

. After the destiny of- 1.20. u ne 

.. [He set] a throne)... o.152 2). Fae 

5 pared wate ee roid ee ae in the heavens, ,.gs02 oyna ee 


(Practically all the remainder of Tablet V is as yet undiscovered. From a 
very broken fragment, preserved in the British Museum, it appears that when 
the gods saw the work of Marduk in adorning the heavens with constellations, 
they broke into rapturous praise of him. It is these words to which reference is 
made at the beginning of Tablet VI.) 


Ap rolron 4 WYO, Tablet VI2 


OOONTA UR WN = 


. Marduk, the word of the gods, when he heard it, 

. His heart was stirred, he formed a brilliant plan. 

. He opened his mouth, to Ea he spoke, 

. What in his heart he had conceived he offered as a plan: 
. “Blood will I bind, bone will I fashion, 

. I will produce a man; ‘man’ is his name; 

. I will create the man ‘man’; 

. Verily by the service of the gods he shall give them rest; 
. Verily I will alter the ways of the gods. 

. One by one let them all be divided into two parts.” 

. Then Ea answered and said unto him a word; 

. He unfolded to him a plan for satisfying the gods: 

. “One among your brethren must be given up, 

. Him I will appoint, the people prepare. 

. The great gods must assemble together; 

. This one must be given up; he must be given them.” 

. Marduk assembled the great gods, he entered and delivered the decision, 


1 Marduk’s temple in Babylonia. 

2 Translated from Ebeling, Keilschrifttexte aus Assur Religions Inhalts, No. 164. Ebeling trans- 
lated portions of this into German in the Mitteilungen der deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft, No. 8, 
but he left untranslated some interesting portions. 


37 


AN EPIC OF THE CREATION 263 


. He opened his mouth, to the gods he spoke: 

. As a king he addressed a word to the Anunnaki 

. “Truly the former things we told you are verified; 

. True things with myself as an oath I have sworn. 

. Who is it that has created the strife, 

. Brought about the uproar, united the battle? 

. He who has caused the strife shall be given up. 

. I will make him, verily, I will cause him to bear the curse; but dwell 


ye in peace.” 


. Then answered him the Igigi, the great gods; 

. “O king, god of heaven and earth, counsellor of the gods, their lord, 
. Kingu it was who caused the strife, 

. He led the rebellion and brought on the battle.” 

. They bound him and brought him before Ea. 

. Then a curse he laid on him; his blood burst forth from him. 

. From his blood he made mankind for the service of the gods, 


. But (the other) gods he let go free. 


at ene 


. After man had been created, Ea laid on him the service of the gods. 
35. That work was past understanding. 
g@é- 36. Through the skill of Marduk, the wisdom of Nudimmud, 


Marduk, king of the gods, stationed twenty Anunnaki above and below, 


. He delivered unto Anu the charge to guard.......... the post 


The Anunnaki who.......... 
. The Anunnaki,....... approached........ 
. To Marduk their lord they spoke: Dur 
- “O divine guardian of the earth, lord, who hast wrought our release, +4. oe ob. & 
. How do we cling to thy presence! , i 


. Oh, we will make a sanctuary the naming of whose name is buat @ m SR ‘ 
. ‘Sanctuary-wherein-we-may-take-rest!’ Lat Tr 


ef 


. Oh, we will found our sanctuary as our dwelling! 

. On the day when we take possession, we will rest in it.” 

. Marduk, when he heard this, i 
. His face like the day appeared exceeding bright: } 
. “Like the founding of Babylon with walls, be the joy of its founding. 

. Let an enclosed city be built, a district of land surround it.” “T Aw 


. The Anunnaki protected the kiln; for a year they burned bricks. : 6 i 
. The second year came around, the enclosure of Esagila was founded on i 
¥ 


the breast of Apsu.! dit, i 
. They built the temple-tower till it touched the celestial ocean; rae i 
. For Marduk, Enlil, and Ea they raised it as a dwelling; i 
. With the glory of their presence they entered in. g he i 
. From its foundation Esagila exhibited its two horns. Hl 


. After they finished the work of Esagila, i 


. The Anunnaki their sanctuaries set up; 1 
. In Esagila, founded on the deep, they all assembled 
. In a large garden which they created was their dwelling. 

. The gods, his fathers, to his prayer (?) hearkened: 

. Divine fate at the great gate of the beloved dwelling was established. 
. In the district each (?) in his place and shrine the great gods dwelt. 


. They placed strong drink at the feasts; H 


. Satisfying food they set in their midst 


1 Apsu corresponds to “the waters under the earth,” Exodus 20 : 4, 


ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


69. In Esagila........ 


. Truly his lordship was glorified 
- Verily he exercised rulership 
. In future days let...... be not forgotten. 
. May he establish for his fathers 


. Laws were laid down, authority established. 
. The place of heaven and earth was established by the gods, all of them. 
. The great gods dwelt there (?) joyfully (?) 

. The gods of fate, seven of them over.,.... were established. 
. Enlil lifted up his weapon (?), their... ... he cast down. 

. The net which he made for himself the gods his fathers 

. They saw the bow, how skillful (?) its workmanship. 

. The deed he did...... his fathers. 

. Anu rose up... ;.. he spoke 

. The bow has been kissed (?)...... 

. “Long-wood” is its first name...... 

. The third (?) of its names is “Bow-star”’,..... 

. He fixed its station...... 

. After he had fixed the fates...... 

. He set up a throne...... 

. Mighty in heaven...... 

. He assembled...... 


es see wreer seer eee eaee 


oc see eee ees esveseve 


eee wereeteecene se eease 


cer eer eee eer eos eee 


eee ere ees eereereoee 


CY 


seeeee 


«eevee 


eee ewe 


eee eee 


Ce Be Sie 8 ee Oe OTS Se 


. He opened his mouth...... let them kiss 

- Let free will offerings be brought to their god and goddess 

. Let them not forget their god, let them feed him. 

. Their land may they adorn, their shrines may they build 

. Verily the gods enlarged 

. As for us, by as many names as we call him he is our god 

. We will name his fifty names. 

2 AAA oa is glorious; his work is similar. 

- Marduk, whom from his birth, Anu his father had named, 

. Who establishes brotherhood (?), enriches cities, 

. Who by his weapon, the deluge, took captive the rebellious, 
. The gods his fathers he preserved from tribulation. 

- Surely it was his sonship for which the gods called him. 

- In his brilliant light they walk continually. 

. The people whom he had made became living creatures; 

. They established the service of the gods: they pacified them. 


OONA NRW 


AN EPIC OF THE CREATION 265 


ee ee ae ee eae SORE OTS SO we, 64 We 6 06 8 eh) ee we oe ee wi 8 8 eee 8 
eS. 9 ee & alee te 616 8 woe pS 
ee ee eee veoe 


oer eereve 


ee ge eee ROO Bie 6 Se 6g ee oo Wee 8 ie. 6 oo} ee oe Ce 


. The brilliant god, the king of heaven he called his second name; the 


place of the gods 


. Of heaven and earth he founded as our dwelling in distress! 

. Between the Igigi! and the Anunnaki? the place is divided. 

. At his name may the gods be stirred and the dwelling shake! 

. Asharu’ the good, Anu his father named him. 

. He truly is the light of the gods, the mighty battle-axe, 

. Who is like the protecting sun-god of the land. 

. By a mighty battle he delivered our dwelling from distress. 

. The god Asharu, the good, god of life, a second time they named “the- 


exalted-divine-companion”; 


- Who, as though his offspring, gave life to us, the gods who were perishing, 
. The lord who by his holy incantation made the dead gods live. 

. Destroyer of plotters, hater.......... 

. Verily the one whom his fathers named “the brilliant god,” 

. The holy god who illumines our way. 

. (There came?) Anshar, Lakhmu and Lakhamu, 


. Unto (the gods their sons) they spoke: 
ALCS Sn , we have proclaimed his names.” 
ote 2 speech. 


. They rejoiced (when they heard) their speech. 


In Upshukinnaka he granted their desires. 


- “Of the heroic son our avenger 

. We, of our preserver, will exalt the name.” 

. They sat in the assembly, they proclaimed his worth, 

. All of them on the mesu-instrument celebrated his name. 


Tablet VII 


. “O Asharu, bestower of harvests, founder of agriculture, 
. Creator of grain and plants, who made green herbs to grow, 
. O honored Asharu, revered in the house of counsel, rich in counsel, 


Whom the gods honor, fearing [laid hold upon them] 

O honored Asharu, powerful prince, the light [of the fathers who begat 
him], 

Who directs the decrees of Anu, Bel, [and Ea]. 


. He was their preserver, who ordained.......... 
. He whose provision is abundance, he goeth forth.......... 
. Tutu, the creator of their renewal is he. 


1 The Spirits of heaven. 
2 The Spirits of earth. 
3 Another name for Marduk. 


ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


. If their want be pure, then are [they satisfied]; 

. If he make an incantation, then are the gods [appeased]; 

. Should they attack him in anger, he will repulse their array; 

. Let him therefore be exalted in the assembly of the gods. 

. None among the gods is like unto him! 

. Tutu-Ziukinna is the life of the host of the gods. 

. Who established for the gods the bright heavens. 

. Their way he received, [their path] ordained. 

. Never forgotten among men shall be his [mighty] deeds. 

. Tutu as Zi-azag thirdly they named, bringer of purification, 

. God of the favoring breeze, the lord who hears and is merciful, 
. Who creates fulness and plenty, who establishes abundance, 

. Who turns whatever is small into something great. 

. “Tn sore distress we caught his favoring breeze,” 

. Let them honor him, praise him, bow humbly before him. 

. Tutu as Aga-azag may the mighty ones praise, 

. The lord of the pure incantation, who makes the dead to live, 
. Who to the captive gods showed abundant compassion, 

. The oppressive yoke he laid upon the gods, his enemies, 

. For their! release he created mankind, 

. The merciful one, with whom is life! 

. Established and never forgotten be his word 

. In the mouth of the black-headed race,? whom his hand created. 
. Tutu as Mu-azag, fifthly, his pure incantation may their mouth pro- 


claim, 


. Who through his pure incantation destroys all evil ones, 
. Shagzu, who knows the hearts of the gods, who sees through the inner- 


most parts. 


. The evil doer he permits not to go out with him (?). 

. Founder of the assembly of the gods [who gladdens] their heart. 
. Who subdues.the disobedient.......... 

. Director of righteousness...... 


(The tablet is too broken for connected translation, until nearly the end, where 
it continues:) 


. Truly he holds their beginning and ending.......... 

. Saying, “He who passed through the midst of Tiamat [without resting], 
. Let his name be Neberu, who seizes the midst, 

. Who the stars of heaven—their ways he upholds; 

. As a flock verily the gods pasture, all of them.” 

. He bound Tiamat, her life he apportioned, he ended. 

. In the future, people, old in years, 

. Shall renew unceasingly, ‘‘let him be lord forever!” 

. Because he created the places and fashioned the fastnesses 
. “Lord of countries” Bel, his father, named him. 

. The names the Igigi named, all of them, 

. Ea heard, and his heart rejoiced: 

. “He whose name his fathers have magnified 

. He, even like me, shall be named Ea. 

. The binding of all my commands shall he control, 


1 J. e., the captive gods of line 27. 
2 The name which the Babylonians gave themselves. 


AN EPIC OF THE CREATION 267 


122. All my decrees shall he proclaim!” 

123. By the name “Fifty” did the great gods 

124. His fifty names make known, they made his path pre-eminent. 
125. May they be held fast and the first men reveal them, 

126. The wise, the understanding shall consider them together; 
127. May the father repeat them and the son lay hold upon them, 
128. So that shepherd and herdsman may open their ears, 

129. And may rejoice in Marduk, the.lord of the gods, 

130. That his land may be fertile, that he may have prosperity. 
131. His word is established, his command unfailing, 

132. The word of his mouth, no god hath annulled. 

133. He casts his glance without turning his neck, 

134. When he roars, no god can face his anger. 

135. Wide is his heart, great his goodness; 

136. The sinner and transgressor in his presence.......... 

137. They received instruction, they spake before him. 


(The concluding lines are too broken for connected translation.) 


2. The First Chapter of Genesis and the Foregoing Creation Epic. 

The Babylonian Creation Epic, in the form in which we know it, 
took shape in the city of Babylon. Naturally, therefore, the god 
Marduk is made the central figure. It is he only who was suffi- 
ciently powerful to overcome the primeval dragon, it was he who 
created the heavens and the earth, it was he whom at the end gods 
and men adored. 

A Babylonian priest, Berossos, in a work composed after the time 
of Alexander the Great, gives an account of Babylonian ideas of 
the creation of the world, which is but the tradition of the epic 
in a slightly different form. A neoplatonic philosopher, Damascius, 
who lived about 560.a. D., has also preserved a part of the tradition 
in a form almost identical with that of the epic. 

Scholars of all shades of opinion agree that there is some con- 
nection between this Babylonian tradition and the first chapter 
of Genesis, though they differ as to whether the Biblical writer was 
acquainted with the Babylonian tradition as we have it in the epic, 
or whether he knew an earlier form of the story. 

The points of similarity which have been urged between Genesis 
and the Babylonian epic are the following: 1. They begin somewhat 
similarly, Genesis with the words “In the beginning,” the epic 
with the words: 


“Time was when above heaven was not named; 
Below to the earth no name. was given.” 


268 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


2. Both accounts assume that primeval chaos consisted of a mass 
of waters, and to this mass of waters they give the same name. 
The Hebrews called it hom, “deep”; the Babylonians, Tié@mat. 
These are really the same word in the two closely related languages, 
just as day and Tag are the same word in an English and a German 
form. In Genesis we are told that “The Spirit of God moved (R. V. 
margin, was brooding) upon the face of the waters”; in the Baby- 
lonian epic, the waters, which were thought to be of two genders, 
were embosomed. In both the result is the beginning of the crea- 
tive process. 

The two accounts agree that the heavens and the earth were 
created by the division of the primeval ocean by* a firmament 
(the Babylonian calls it a covering), which held up a part of the 
waters, so that the earth could be formed beneath. They accord- 
ingly agree in the conception that there is a super-celestial ocean, 
t. €., “the waters which are above the firmament” (Gen. 1 : 7). 

Another striking similarity is found in the arrangement by sevens: 
the Babylonian epic is arranged in seven tablets, or cantos, the 
Hebrew account, in seven days. The Babylonian series culminates 
in the praise of Marduk by all the gods; the Hebrew, in the institu- 
tion of the sabbath. The two series agree in connecting the 
heavens with the fourth epoch of creation, and the creation of 
man with the sixth. 

In other respects the order differs. In the Babylonian account 
the moon and stars are created on the fifth day, instead of on the 
fourth. As Marduk is identified with the sun, that orb is assumed; 
its creation is not described. The creation of animals is not de- 
scribed in any text which we can attach to a definite tablet of the 
Babylonian series. It is, however, given in a fragment which reads 
as follows: 

1. When the gods in their assembly had made [the heavens], 

2. The firmament had established and bound [fast], 

3. Living things of all kinds had created, 

4. Cattle of the field, beasts of the field, and moving things of the city. 

3. AALCeD & ae unto all kinds of living things.......... 

6. [Between beasts] of the field and moving things of the city had divided... 

ER a all creatures, the whole creation.......... 

Ro pean us that which in the whole of my family.......... 

9. [Then arose] Nin-igi-azag, two small creatures [he created], 

10. In the assembly of the beasts he made [their form] brilliant, 

NESE eae the goddess Gula ca spiee 


1 Abe Seto eae at one white and one black.......... 
1B DR Ag Any A one white and one black.......... 


AN EPIC OF THE CREATION 269 


The Babylonian account, then, contained somewhere the story 
of the creation of the animals, though, like the other parts of the 
Babylonian account, its order and atmosphere differ widely from 
the Biblical narrative. 

Some of these resemblances are of no great significance. The 
fact that the two accounts are arranged by sevens may be due 
simply to the fact that that number was sacred among both peoples. 
It is thought by some scholars that its use in Genesis was consciously 
adopted in order to lead up to the sabbath and glorify it. This 
might be true, even if the writer of the chapter knew of the Baby- 
lonian arrangement by sevens. 

The features of the two narratives, which have convinced some 
scholars of all shades of opinion that there is a real kinship between 
the two accounts, are their agreement as to the nature of primeval 
chaos, and the division of the primeval ocean by a firmament for 
the creation of the heavens and the earth. Both writers had, so to 
speak, the same raw material of objective conceptions. 

The differences between the accounts are, however, most marked. 
To speak first of that which is least important, the Hebrew order 
is in many respects different from the Babylonian. In the Baby- 
lonian the gods are generated in the first tablet, the world is not 
created till the fourth, and the creation of all other things is told 
in tablets four, five, and six. In other words, creation is divided 
into two parts, each of which is told in three tablets. The first three 
tablets deal with gods, the second three with the world and living 
things. 

This twofold division is found in the first chapter of Genesis. 
Here the creative process is divided into two stages, each embracing 
four works, and occupying three days. The distribution of these 
works is strikingly different from the Babylonian. On the first 
day, light and darkness were created; on the second, the firmament; 
on the third, the earth and vegetation; on the fourth, the heavenly 
bodies; on the fifth, fishes and birds; on the sixth, animals and men. 
The first series of three days prepared the heavens and the earth; 
the second series studded the sky with orbs and the earth with 
living beings. There is a striking parallelism between the two 
series. The first begins with the creation of light; the second, with 
light-giving bodies. To the third and sixth days two creative acts 
each are assigned. On the second day the seas are isolated; on the 


270 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


fifth they are stocked with fishes. On the third day dry land 
emerges, on the sixth terrestrial animals are made. On the third 
also herbs began to grow; on the sixth they are assigned to animals 
and men for food. The classification of the acts of creation in 
Genesis is clear and consistent, and thoroughly independent of that 
in the Babylonian account. 

A more important difference lies in the religious conceptions of 
the two. The Babylonian poem is mythological and polytheistic. 
Its conception of deity is by no means exalted. Its gods love and 
hate, they scheme and plot, fight and destroy. Marduk, the cham- 
pion, conquers only after a fierce struggle, which taxes his powers to 
the utmost. Genesis, on the other hand, reflects the most exalted 
monotheism. God is so thoroughly the master of all the elements 
of the universe, that they obey his slightest word. He controls 
all without effort. He speaks and it is done. Granting, as most 
scholars do, that there is a connection between the two narratives, 
there is no better measure of the inspiration of the Biblical account 
than to put it side by side with the Babylonian. As we read the 
chapter in Genesis today, it still reveals to us the majesty and power 
of the one God, and creates in the modern man, as it did in the 
ancient Hebrew, a worshipful attitude toward the Creator. 

The sixth tablet is very interesting. Lines 1-33 contain the ac- 
count of the creation of man. This creation is said to have been 
accomplished by sacrificing the life of Kingu, the god who, by 
leading a rebellion, had created strife among the gods. Man was 
made from Kingu’s blood. This seems to have been the Baby- 
lonian way of expressing the thought that man is akin to deity— 
a thought which in Genesis 1 : 26, 27 is expressed by saying that 
God made man in his own image. The purpose of the creation 
of man was to serve the gods—to “satisfy” them or “give them 
rest.” This, in the minds of Babylonians and Assyrians, was ac- 
complished by building temples in which the gods could dwell and 
by offering sacrifices on which the gods could feed. 

After man was thus created, it is related in lines 34-69 how Eden 
was established. Man was put upon the earth, twenty of the great 
spirits of the earth were stationed above and below, and a guard was 
placed so that he should not get away (lines 33-35). This corre- 
sponds to the Cherubim of Genesis 3 : 24, only in the Babylonian 
Epic the guardians were placed to keep man from getting out of 


ee 


AN EPIC OF THE CREATION 271 


Eden, while in Genesis they are stationed to keep him from getting 
back into Eden. 

As a result of the creation of man, the gods are said to have been 
made very happy. A temple was built for them, under the direc- 
tion of the Anunnaki, or spirits of earth, similar to that which after- 
ward was called Esagila in Babylon. Around this temple was a 
garden of the gods. Here they dwelt; man served them; and they 
feasted joyfully. All this is the Babylonian equivalent of the state- 
ment in Genesis 2:9, that God “planted a garden eastward in 
Eden” (edinnu, the Mesopotamian plain) “and there he put the 
man whom he had formed.” 

The temple-tower, the top of which is said in line 56 to have 
“touched the celestial ocean,” is the “Tower of Babel” of the 
eleventh chapter of Genesis; (cf. Gen. 11 : 4). 

3. The Babylonian Creation Epic and Other Parts of the Bible. 

The Babylonian poem, crude though it seems to us, had a power- 
ful fascination for the imagination. With more or less distinctness 
parts of it seem to have been known to various Hebrew writers, 
who, attributing to their own God, Jehovah, the réle ascribed in the 
epic to Marduk, used these stories as poetic illustrations. At least 
this is the view of a considerable group of scholars. Some object 
that, if this were true, it would degrade Jehovah to the level of 
Marduk, but the objection does not seem well founded. The 
Hebrews might well have been such ardent monotheists as to believe 
that each and every mighty manifestation of power had been the 
work of Jehovah, without in any way lowering Jehovah to the level 
of a heathen god. The most important parallels which have been 
cited are here given, so that the reader may judge for himself as to 
which view is the more probable. 

In Job 9 : 13, 14 we read: 


God will not withdraw his anger; 

The helpers of Rahab do stoop under him. 
How much less shall I answer him, 

And choose out my words to reason with him? 


Rahab is believed by many to be here an epithet of Tidmat. It 
means “the one who acts boisterously” or “proudly.” Those who 
thus think believe the lines in Job to refer to the overcoming of 
Tiaémat’s helpers in Tablet IV, lines 105-118, of the Babylonian 
creation epic, which read as follows: 


242 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


After Tiamat, the leader, he had slain, 

Her army he broke, her host was scattered, 

And the gods, her helpers, who marched at her side, 

Trembled, feared, they turned their backs; 

They sought an exit, to save their lives; 

With a cordon they were encompassed, escape was not possible. 
He caught them, their weapons he broke, ; 

Into the net they fell, in the snare they remained. 

All the quarters of the world they filled with their lamentation. 
His wrath they endured; they were held in bondage. 

And the eleven creatures, whom she had filled with terribleness, 
The troop of demons who marched as her helpers, 

He threw into fetters, their power he broke; 

Along with their opposition he trampled them under his feet. 


This would seem to suit the reference in Job, and to give point to 
Job’s words. As our Saviour used stories in his parables, so this 
poet may have used this well-known story to illustrate his point. 

Again Job 26 : 12, 13 reads: 


He stirreth up the sea with his power, 

And by his understanding he smiteth through Rahab. 
By his Spirit the heavens are garnished; 

His hand hath pierced the swift serpent. 


Four of the ancient versions of the Old Testament, with a very 
slight change in the Hebrew letters, read Job 26: 13: 


The bars of heaven fear him; 
His hand hath pierced the swift serpent. 


Into comparison with v. 12 and the last line of 13, scholars have 
brought Tablet IV, line 93, ff., which runs: 


Then took their stand Tiamat and the leader of the gods, Marduk; 
For the fight they approached, for the battle they drew near. 
The lord spread out his net and enclosed her, 

The evil wind from behind he thrust into her face. 

As Tiamat opened her mouth to its full extent, 

The evil wind he drove in, so that her lips could not close. 
With the mighty winds he filled her belly. 

Her courage was taken away, and she opened her mouth. 

He let fall the spear, he burst open her belly, 

He cut through her inward parts, he pierced her heart, 

He bound her and her life destroyed; 

Her body he cast down and stood upon it. 


Into comparison with the first line of v. 13, as the versions give it, 
scholars have brought line 135, and ff., of the same tablet: 


AN EPIC OF THE CREATION 273 


Then the lord rested, he gazed upon her body, 

The flesh of the monster he divided; he formed a cunning plan. 
He split her open like a flat fish into two halves; 

One half of her he established and made a covering of the heavens. 
He drew a bolt, he established a guard, 

And not to let her waters come out, he commanded. 


With the passages quoted above Psa. 74: 13, 14 has also been 
compared: 


Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: 

Thou brakest the heads of the sea-monsters in the waters. 

Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces; 

Thou gavest him to be food to the people inhabiting the wilderness. 


Verses 16, 17 of the same Psalm continue the theme with the 


words: 
The day is thine, the night also is thine: 
Thou hast prepared the light and the sun. 
Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: 
Thou hast made summer and winter. 


The theme is the same as that of the epic, viz.: the creation of the 
world. It would appear from vy. 14 that as the Hebrews called 
Tiamat Rahab, so they called Kingu leviathan. Those who so 
think find another reference to the Babylonian creation epic in 
Job 3: 8: 


Let them curse it that curse the day, 
Who are ready to rouse up leviathan. 


Apparently there were magicians who professed to be able to 
arouse such a monster. 

Other references to leviathan are thought to employ the same 
illustrative material. Thus in Isa. 27 : 1 we read: 


In that day Jehovah with his hard and great and strong sword will punish 
leviathan the swift serpent, and leviathan the crooked serpent; and he will slay 
_ the monster that is in the sea. 


In Job 41 there is a long description of the crocodile under the 
name leviathan. In verses 19-21 some things are said of him that 
do not suit a real crocodile, and some scholars have thought that 
the language was influenced by the Babylonian material. These 
verses are: 


274 ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Out of his mouth go burning torches, 
And sparks of fire leap forth. 

Out of his nostrils a smoke goeth, 

As of a boiling pot and burning rushes. 
His breath kindleth coals, 

And a flame goeth forth from his mouth. 


Other references to Rahab, which have been thought to use the 
same illustration, are Psalm 89 : 10: 


Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces as one that is slain; 
Thou hast scattered thine enemies with the arm of thy strength. 


Also, Isaiah 51 : 9: 


Is it not thou that didst cut Rahab in pieces, 
That didst pierce the monster? 


As to whether these sacred writers really employed the material 
of the Babylonian epic to give force to their illustrations, the judg- 
ments of men will differ in accordance with their views of what is 
possible for an inspired writer. 

In the following passages Rahab is used to denote Egypt as a 
proud and imperious country. These uses are clearly figurative 
and metaphorical. 

Isa. 30:7: 


For Egypt helpeth in vain and to no purpose: 
Therefore have I called her Rahab that sitteth still. 


Psa. 87:4: 


Rahab and Babylon I proclaim my votaries. 


A fragmentary account of an Assyrian version of the creation 
epic has been found. It agrees with the Babylonian account in 
beginning with Tiamat, though the course of creation appears to 
have been different. The tablets known to us present it, how- 
ever, in a form too fragmentary for us to follow the course of the 
narrative. 


CHAPTER II 


SOME OTHER ACCOUNTS OF THE CREATION FOUND IN 
BABYLONIA! 
1. TExT oF A British Museum TABLET. 2. COMPARISON OF IT WITH GENESIS 2, 


3. TExT OF A TABLET FROM NIPPUR AND COMPARISON WITH GENESIS. 4. TEXT OF A 
TABLET FROM ASHUR COMPARED WITH GENESIS. 


—_ 


. Text of One Account. 


1. A holy house, a house of the gods, in a holy place had not been made; 
2. No reed had sprung up, no tree had been created. 
3. No brick had been made, no foundation had been built, 
4. No house had been constructed, no city had been built; 
5. No city had been built, thrones had not been established; 
6. Nippur had not been constructed, Ekur had not been built; 
7. Erech had not been constructed, Eanna had not been built; 
8. The deep had not been formed, Eridu had not been built; 
9. The holy house, the house of the gods, the dwelling had not been made,— 
10. All lands were sea,— 
11. Then in the midst of the sea was a water-course; 
12. In those days Eridu was constructed, Esagila was built, 
13. Esagila where, in the midst of the deep, the god Lugal-dul-azaga abode, 
14. (Babylon was made, Esagila was completed). 
15. The gods and the Anunaki he made at one time. 
16. (The holy city, the dwelling of their hearts’ desire, they named as first), 
17. Marduk bound a structure of reeds upon the face of the waters, 
18. He formed dust, he poured it out beside the reed-structure. 
19. To cause the gods to dwell in the habitation of their hearts’ desire, 
20. He formed mankind. 
21. The goddess Aruru with him created mankind, 
22. Cattle of the field, in whom is breath of life, he created. 
23. He formed the Tigris and Euphrates and set them in their places, 
24. Their names he did well declare. 
25. The grass, marsh-grass, the reed and brushwood (?) he created, 
26. The green grass of the field he created, 
27. The land, the marshes, and the swamps; 
28. The wild cow and her young, the wild calf; the ewe and her young, the 
lamb of the fold; 
29. Gardens and forests; 
30. The wild goat, the mountain goat, (who) cares for himself (?). 
31. The lord Marduk filled a terrace by the seaside, 


a a marsh, reeds he set, 
es bs cia nas he caused to exist. 

34, [Reeds he creat]ed; trees he created; 

Bom Otnelr,..... 54... in their place he made; 


1 Translated from Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum, Part XIII, 
p. 35, ff. 
275 


276 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


36, [Bricks he laid, a founda]tion he constructed; 
37. [Houses he made], a city he built; 

38. [A city he built, a throne] he established; 

39. [Nuppur he constructed], Ekur he built; 

40. [Erech he constructed], Eanna he built. 


(At this point the tablet is broken. When it again becomes legible, it is in the 
midst of an incantation.) 


2. Comparison with Genesis 2. 

This account of the creation has sometimes been compared with 
Genesis 2 : 4, ff., which describes a time when there was no grass 
or vegetation on the earth, and then goes on to describe the creation 
of man and animals, speaking of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. 

In this account of the creation it is stated (line 21) that the 
goddess Aruru with Marduk created mankind. 

In another Babylonian poem, the Gilgamesh epic, which contains 
the Babylonian story of the flood, there is an account of the crea- 
tion of man which accords much more closely with Gen. 2:7 than 
that which we are considering. It runs: 


The goddess Aruru, when she heard this, 

A man like Anu she formed in her heart. 
Aruru washed her hands; 

Clay she pinched off and spat upon it; 
Eabani, a hero she created, 

An exalted offspring, with the might of Ninib. 


Here is clearly a tradition, similar to Genesis, that God formed 
man from the dust of the ground. The allusion to Aruru indicates 
that this formed a part of the early Babylonian tradition. There 
is considerable evidence that in an earlier form of the Babylonian 
account Marduk had no place. He was introduced into it later by 
the priests of Babylon. Aruru was in that earlier form the creator 
of man, and probably was said to have formed him from clay, as 
in the Gilgamesh epic. 

While these points of likeness are evident, there are great differ- 
ences between the two narratives. The Babylonian account speaks 
not only of grass and reeds as non-existent, but of cities and temples 
also, which, it tells us, were created later. It has no picture of 
Eden; its thought centers in well-known Babylonian cities. While 
Marduk appears as supreme in the Babylonian poem, the gods and 
Anunaki, or spirits of earth, are recognized, so that the polytheistic 
view is not entirely absent. In the Biblical picture, on the other 


SOME OTHER ACCOUNTS OF THE CREATION 277 


hand, Jehovah is supreme. Opinions of scholars differ as to whether 
there was any real connection between the two narratives. What- 
ever opinion one may hold on this point, there can be no question 
but that the second chapter of Genesis is dominated by those re- 
ligious conceptions which were so uniquely manifested in Israel, 
while they are absent from the Babylonian narrative. 


3. Text of a Tablet from Nippur.' 


. In the mountain of heaven and earth 

. The day Anu brought forth the great gods; 

. A tree of Ezinu had not been born, had not become green, 
Her land, the goddess Takku had not created. 

For Takku a temple-platform had not been filled in; 

. A ewe (?) had not bleated (?), a lamb had not been dropped, 
. A goat had not bleated, a kid had not been born, 

. No ewe had borne her lamb, 

. No goat had borne a kid, 

10. The name of Ezinu, tall and holy, and of Sig.? 

11. The Anunnaki, the great gods, had not known. 

12. There was no Ses-grain of thirty-fold; 

13. There was no Ses-grain of fifty-fold; 

14. Small grain, mountain-grain, and cattle-fodder there were not; 
15. A possession and houses there were not; 

16. Takku had not been brought forth, a shrine not lifted up 

17. Together with the lady Ninki the lord had not brought forth men. 
18. Shamash as leader came, unto her desire came forth; 

19. Mankind he planned; many men were brought forth. 

20. Food and sleep they knew not; 

21. Clothing and dwellings they knew not. 

22. The people with rushes and skins came, 

23. Like sheep with their mouths.......... they ate grass, 

24. Garden water they drank. 

25. When the land was green with the forms of their gods 

26. And with edible plants the holy dwelling of Sig? and Ezinu were green, 
27. They brought food for the gods to the established dwelling 
28. From the abundance of Sig and Ezinu. 

29. The great gods in their holy dwelling 

30. Ate; they were not satisfied; 

31. They gave good food to their holy flock. 


WOON AUP We 


1 The text has been published by Barton, Miscellaneous Babylonian Inscriptions, No. 8, and 
by Langdon, Le Poéme Sumerien du Paridis du Déluge, et de la Chute de l’Homme, Planche VII 
and VIII. Translations, Barton, op. cit. p. 52, ff, Langdon, op. cit., p. 136 ff., and Luckenbill, 
AJSL. XXXVIUI, 32 ff. Chiera, in Sumerian Religious Texts, published by Crozer Theological 
Seminary, No. 25, has added a copy from Constantinople. He has also shown that a fragment of 
the text is published in Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania, Vol. XXXI, 
No. 15, and another in the Hilprecht Anniversary Volume, No. 6. Other unpublished fragments 
are also cited in his work. 

2 Sig is the usual sign for wool and is employed further on to designate wool. Here it is said 
to have been green. Does it refer to some plant, flax or cotton, that could be used for the same 
purpose as wool? 


278 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Reverse 


- The great gods in their holy dwelling 

. Drank; they were not satisfied; 

. For the proper feeding of their holy flock 

Kingship in security they established. 

When Enki spoke a word to Enlil, 

. The waters of Enlil and Ezida 

. Made the holy dwelling green. 

. The mighty holy dwelling they inhabited for thee. 

. Enki and Enlil their holy word 

10. To Sig and Ezinu spoke from the holy dwelling; 

11. Wool from the flock they gave; 

12. Vegetables as food in abundance they gave. 

13. For vegetation they made canals, . 

14. Irrigating machines with laborers attached they gave. 

15. Wool was taken from the flock; 

16. The shepherd of the flock revelled in abundance. 

17. Ezinu stood as tall vegetation; 

18. The bright land was green; it presented abundance in heaps; 
19. In the field the head was lifted high; 

20. From heaven abundance came; 

21. Sig and Ezinu made increase; 

22. For all they raised an abundance; 

23. They filled the land with exalted courage; 

24. The voice of their god uttered just decisions for them. 

25. A dwelling-place was their land; food increased for the people; 
26. The prosperity of their land brought them danger; 

27. For making house-bricks the clay of the land they burned. 
28. They became strong; they raised abundance; 

29. Companions were they; man with wife they dwelt; 

30. In misfortune the house assists them. 


WO OONTO Gib Ge be 


A colophon states that the tablet contained 60 lines. Ezinu 
was a god of vegetation—trees, grain, etc. Sig usually signifies 
“wool,” then “garment.” As Sig is in this text said to have become 
green along with Ezinu, it may designate flax, or possibly cotton, 
which produced a woolly substance from which garments were made. 
The goddess Takku was a patroness of agriculture. The story, 
therefore, begins before the existence of vegetation and domestic 
animals, before fields had been cultivated, or houses built, and be- 
fore the establishment of political institutions, and it traces the 
coming of these into existence. In this respect it reminds one of 
Gen. 2:5, 6. The way in which the word of the great god Enki 
causes water to flow and other creative acts to follow resembles in 
a faint way the way God speaks and things come into existence in 
the first chapter of Genesis. 


SOME OTHER ACCOUNTS OF THE CREATION 279 


4, Another Sumerian Account of the Creation of Man. 

Still another account of the creation of man has been found among 
the tablets discovered at the city of Ashur. This was copied by the 
Assyrian scribes from a Sumerian text so old that it is accompanied 
not only by an Assyrian translation, but by many kabbalistic 
symbols. It reads as follows:1 


. When both heaven and earth had been completely established; 
. When the mother of the goddesses had been born; ' 

When the earth had been brought forth, the land created, 

. When the domes of heaven and earth had been established, 
. Straight canals had been constructed; 

- The Tigris and Euphrates—their banks had been established; 
. Anu, Enlil, Shamash, Ea, 

. The great gods, 

. The Anunnaki, the great gods, 

10. Lofty sanctuaries inhabited as creators. 

11. In anxiety they asked: 

12. “Since the domes of heaven and earth have been established, 
13. Straight canals have been constructed, 

14. The Tigris and Euphrates— 

15. Their banks have been established, 

16. What shall we change? 

17. What shall we create? 

18. O Anunnaki, ye great gods, 

19. What shall we change? 

20. What shall we create?” 

21. The great gods, standing aloft, 

22. The Anunnaki, who determine fate, 

23. The two of them made answer to Enlil: 

24. “In the land where flesh grows, the bond of heaven and earth, 
25. Lamga, Lamga, we will overthrow; 

26. From his blood mankind we will make, 

27. Let the bonds of the gods be bound upon them; 

28. For future days the limit 

29. Be established; 

30. The yoke and lifting cord on their hands 

31. Be placed, 

32. The temple of the great gods 

33. Unto a lofty sanctuary to bring, 

34. The meadows to mark out, 

35. Forever their limits 

36. To establish, 

37. The straight canal 

38. As a boundary to establish, 

39. The earth to water, the plants 

40. To raise, 

41. The rain of heaven, the rain of heaven.......... 

42. The ravine of the land as a boundary to set, 

43. The storehouse of the district to measure it, 

44. To make the field of the Annunaki produce, 


1 Translated from E. Ebeling’s Keilschrifttexte aus Assur Religions Inhalts, Leipzig, 1915-1919, 
No. 4. 


CONAW RWre 


This account shows that there were among the Babylonian tradi- 
tions variations of the idea that man was made from the blood of a 
In this account, instead of being from the blood of Kingu, one 
of the rebellious gods, husband of the arch-rebel Tidmat, he is made 
from the blood of Lamga, the craftsman, the god of carpenters. 

It will be noted that, as in the sixth tablet of the Creation Epic, 
so in this account man was created by the gods for the specific pur- 
pose of tilling the ground, building temples, and keeping up the 
festivals of the gods. It accords in that respect with the thought 
of the second chapter of Genesis, where man is placed in Eden, the 
garden of God, to dress it and to keep it for his Divine Creator 


god. 


ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


. To increase the abundance of the land, 

. To keep the feast of the gods, 

. Cool water to pour out 

. In the dwellings of the gods which have been made lofty. 
. Ullugarra and Nigarra 

. Shall they be called. 

. Ox, sheep, cattle, fish, and bird, 

. The abundance of the land to increase, 

. The lord of gladness and the lady of gladness 

. With their holy mouth to supplicate. 

. O Aruru, who hast been raised up for ladyship, 

. Great structures thou thyself shalt enclose, 

. Wise men for the people, heroes for the weak, 

. Like grain springing of itself from the earth, shall be made,— 
. A destiny unchangeable as a star forever. 

. By day and night 

. The feasts of the gods, 

. Their great appointed festivals of themselves 

. They shall celebrate.” 

. Anu, Enlil, 

. Ea, Ninmakhu 

. The great gods, 

. The place of mankind created. 

. The goddess Nisaba! in mankind’s place was established. 
. Mighty and secret things 

. As a scribe I teach. 


(see Genesis 2 : 15). 


1The grain-goddess. 


CHAPTER III 


THE BABYLONIAN SABBATH 


FEAST OF MARDUK AND ZARPANIT. A Day CALLED SHABATUM. A DAY IN SOME 
TABLETS AT YALE. 


1. Feast of Marduk and Zarpanit. 


The seventh day is the feast of Marduk and Zarpanit. It is an evil day. 
The shepherd of the great people shall not eat flesh cooked on the coals which is 
smoked. The garment of his body he shall not change; a clean one he shall not 
puton. A sacrifice'he shall not offer. The king ina chariot shall not ride. In 
triumph he shall not speak. In the secret place a seer shall not give an oracle. 
The physician shall not lay his hand on the sick. It is not fitting to utter a 
malediction. At night before Marduk and Ishtar the king shall bring his offer- 
ing; a libation he shall pour out. The lifting up of his hands shall then be pleas- 
ing to the gods.! 


This passage occurs in a tablet which describes the nature of all 
the days of amonth. The same prohibitions are recorded for the 
fourteenth, nineteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days. 
The tablet has often been brought into comparison with the Hebrew 
sabbath, partly because the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, and 
twenty-eighth days are involved, partly because the prohibitions 
remind the reader of Exodus 20 : 8-11 and Deut. 5 : 12-15. 


Exod. 20 : 8-11. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days 
shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is a sabbath unto the 
Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy 
daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger 
that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, 
and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed 
the sabbath day, and hallowed it. 

Deut. 5 : 12-15. Observe the sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord thy 
God commanded thee. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but 
the seventh day is a sabbath unto the Lord thy God: 7 7¢ thou shalt not do any 
work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maid- 
servant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is 
within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as 
thou. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, 


1 Translated from Rawlinson’s Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, IV, 2d ed., pl. 32, lines 
28-38. 
281 


282 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


and the Lord thy God brought thee out thence by a mighty hand and by a 
stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the 
sabbath day. 


In reality the Babylonian prohibitions apply to certain classes 
of people only, and not to the whole population. A study of the 
contract literature shows that there was no cessation of business 
upon these days of the month, so that resemblance to the Hebrew 
sabbath is really quite slight. 

2. A Day Called Shabatum. 

These days were not, so far as we know, called shabatum, but 
another tablet tells us that the fifteenth day of each month was so 
called. Shabatum is etymologically the same as the Hebrew sab- 
bath. As the Babylonian months were lunar, the fifteenth was 
the time of the full moon, so that in Babylonian the day denoted 
the completion of the moon’s growth. In the Old Testament 
“sabbath” is sometimes coupled with “new moon,” as though it may 
also have designated a similar day. (See 2 Kings 4 : 23; Amos 
8:5; Hosea 2:11; Isa. 1:13; 66:23, and Ezek. 46:3.) This 
Babylonian shabatwm can, in any event, have no direct relationship 
to the Hebrew sabbath as a day of rest once a week. 

3. A Day in Some Tablets at Yale. 

A series of tablets in the Yale Babylonian Collection, a portion 
of which has been published by Prof. Clay,?shows that special sac- 
rifices were offered on the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, and 
twenty-eighth of each month. These sacrifices show that these 
days were thought to have some peculiar significance, but, what- 
ever that significance may have been, the evidence cited shows 
that it was not the same as that of the Hebrew sabbath. 


1See Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology, Vol. XXVI, pp. 51-56. 
2 Miscellaneous Inscriptions in the Yale Babylonian Collection, New Haven, 1916, Nos. 46-51. 


CHAPTER IV 


THE FALL OF MAN 


1. COMPARISON OF THE ADAPA MyTu wITH GENEsIs 3. 2. THE Mytu. 3. A BABYLO- 
NIAN STORY OF EXPULSION FROM A GARDEN, WITH COMPARISON OF GENESIS 3. 


Four fragments of the Adapa myth have been found. They 
really present but three parts of the story, as two of them cover the 
same ground. ‘These three parts of the story are translated in this 
chapter. It will be noted that the fragments do not present the 
entire story. Between fragments I and II, as well as between 
fragments IT and III, some lines have fallen out, and the last frag- 
ment is broken away before the end of the account is reached. 
Nevertheless, from the parts which we have it is clear that the 
Babylonians shared with the Hebrews some of the traditions re- 
corded in the third chapter of Genesis. 

1. Comparison with Genesis 3. 

In the first place, Adapa, like Adam, had gained knowledge. 
This knowledge carried with it a power hitherto regarded as an 
attribute of divinity. It enabled Adapa to break the wing of the 
south wind; it tempted Adam and Eve “‘to become like God, know- 
ing good and evil” (Gen. 3:5). Asin Genesis, knowledge did not 
carry with it immortality. Ea, the god who had permitted Adapa 
to become wise, feared that he might gain immortality, as Jeho- 
vah thought that Adam might “put forth his hand and take of the 
tree of life and eat and live forever” (Gen. 3:22). (For Babylo- 
nian and Assyrian conceptions of the tree of life, see Figs. 291, 293.) 

Ea accordingly told Adapa a falsehood when he was about to go 
into the presence of the supreme god, Anu, in order to prevent him 
from eating the food that would make him immortal; Jehovah drove 
man from the garden where the tree of life grew. ‘The two accounts 
agree in the thought that immortality could be obtained by eating 
a certain kind of food. The lines at the end of the Adapa story are 
much broken, but they make it clear that as a punishment for what 
he had done, Adapa was subjected to sickness, disease, and restless- 
ness. This corresponds to the toil inflicted upon man (Gen. 3 : 17- 
19), and the pangs of childbirth imposed upon woman (Gen. 3 : 16). 
It appears also that as Adam and Eve were clothed with skins in con- 
sequence of their deed (Gen. 3 : 21), so pe was clothed by Anu 
in a special clothing. 

283 


284 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


These similarities indicate that the Babylonians possessed the 
same general ideas of the connection of increasing knowledge, with 
the attributes of divinity on the one hand, and with suffering and 
clothing on the other, which are presented in Genesis. An increas- 
ing number of modern scholars regard the Babylonian story as an 
earlier form of a narrative which the Hebrew writer took and puri- 
fied. Others hold that it is a somewhat degenerate form of the 
Biblical narrative. In any event, the Babylonian story proves the 
Biblical conceptions to be very ancient, and, by its contrasts to that 
of Genesis, it exhibits the dignity and religious value of the Biblical 
narrative. In the Babylonian myth, the gods, Ea and Anu, are 
divided and work at cross purposes; Ea tells a falsehood to accom- 
plish his end. Genesis, while it represents Jehovah as feeling and 
acting in a much more human way than some parts of the Bible do, 
still portrays him as a consistently righteous, omnipotent God, who 
demands obedience, and whose punishments are the reasonable 
recompense for transgressions. The superiority of the Old Testa- 
ment stands out in striking contrast. 

2. The Adapa Myth.! 


. He possessed intelligence.......... 
. His command like the command of Anu.......... 


Unto him wisdom he gave; eternal life he did not grant him. 

. In those days, in those years the wise man of Eridu,— 

. Ea as a chief (?) among men had created him,— 

A wise man whose command no one could restrain, 

. The prudent, the most wise among the Anunnaki was he, 

. Blameless, clean of hands, anointed, the observer of divine commands, 
10. With the bakers he made bread, 

11. With the bakers of Eridu he made bread, 

12. The food and water of Eridu he prepared daily, 

13. With his clean hands he prepared the table, 

14, And without him the table was not cleared. 

15. The ship he steered; fishing and hunting for Eridu he did. 

16. Then Adapa of Eridu, 

17. While Ea lay upon a bed in a chamber (?), 

18. Daily the closing of Eridu he made right. 

19. At the pure quay, the quay of the new-moon, he embarked upon the ship, 
20. The wind blew, his ship sailed, 

21. With the rudder he steered the ship 

22. Upon the broad sea. 


SO Oe ob OOo. 8 0 O'S 6.0 6 0 & & 06's Cleve © 6 6 © 66 66s) om pe Wb) 6s naan eee 


1 Translated from Recueil de Traveaux, XX, 127, ff.; Winckler and Abel’s Thontafelnfund von 
El-Amarna, No. 240, Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, VI, p. xvii, f., and Proceedings of the Society of 
Biblical Archeology, XVI, 294, f. 


COONTODNGUR whe 


~—— 


ee eR 
PONE OCONAM PWN 


THE FALL OF MAN 285 


evoevoeeeeeereeveeeereeseereeeererereeoee ee ee 


. The south wind [blew and capsized him], 
. To the house [of the fishes] it made him sink, 


“O south wind [increase] thy rage as much as [thou art able], 
Thy wing I will break.” As he spoke with his mouth, 


. The wing of the south wind was broken, seven days 

. The south wind blew not on the land. Anu 

. To his messenger, Ilabrat, said: 

. “Why has the south wind not blown upon the land for seven days?” 

. His messenger Ilabrat answered him, “My lord 

. Adapa, the son of Ea, the wing of the south wind 

. Has broken.” Anu, when he heard this, 

. Cried “Help!” He ascended his throne: “Let some one bring him to me. 
. Likewise Ea, who knows the heavens, summon him, 


14a. To King Ea to come.”’} 

14b. To him he caused word to be borne, 

a te. vey se To him, to King Ea, 

14d. He sent a messenger. 

14e. He is of great understanding, he knows the hearts of the great gods, 


14f 


5 Pe of the heavens, he establishes it. 

. [A soiled garment he made] him wear; with a mourning garment clad him, 
. He clothed him and gave him counsel, 

. Saying: “‘Adapa, into the presence of Anu, the king, thou art going, 

. Fail not the order, my word keep, 

. When thou goest up to heaven and approachest the gate of Anu, 

. At the gate of Anu, Tammuz and Gishzida 

. Stand, they will see thee, they will ask: ‘Lord, 

. For whose sake art thou thus, Adapa? For whom 

. Art thou clad in a mourning garment?’ ‘In our country two gods have 


vanished, therefore 


. Am I thus.’ ‘Who are the two gods who in the land 
. Have vanished?? ‘Tammuz and Gishzida.’ They will look at one 


another and 


. Be astonished. Favorable words 

. To Anu they will speak. A joyful countenance of Anu 

. They will reveal to thee. When thou standest in the presence of Anu, 
. Food of death they will offer thee to eat; 

_ Thou shalt not eat. Water of death they will offer thee to-drink; 

. Thou shalt not drink. A garment will they show thee; 

. Put it on. Oil they will set before thee; anoint thyself. 

. The command which I give thee, forget not. The word 

. Which I have spoken hold fast.” The messenger 

. Of Anu came: “‘Adapa of the south wind 

. The wing has broken. Into my presence bring him.” 

_ The road to heaven he made him take’ and to heaven he ascended. 

. When to heaven he ascended, when he approached the gate of Anu, 

. At the gate of Anu, Tammuz and Gishzida were standing. 

. When they saw him they cried: “Adapa, help! 

. Lord, for whose sake art thou thus? 

. For whom art thou clad in a mourning garment? 

. Inthe country two gods have vanished; therefore in a mourning garment 

. AmI clad. Who are the two gods who from the land have vanished?” 


1 The lines 14a, etc., are supplied from a parallel tablet. 


21. 


ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


. “Tammuz and Gishzida.” They looked at one another and 
. Were astonished. When Adapa before Anu the king, 

. Approached, Anu saw him and cried: 

. “Come, Adapa, why of the south wind the wing 

. Hast thou broken?” Adapa answered: ‘Anu, my lord, 

. For the house of my lord in the midst of the sea 

. I was catching fish. As I was midway of the voyage 

. The south wind blew and capsized me; 

. To the house of the fishes it made me sink. In the anger of my heart 
. [The south wind] I cursed. At my side answered Tammuz 

. And Gishzida: ‘The heart should be toward Anu.’ 

. They spoke, he was appeased, his heart was won (?). 

. “Why has Ea, to impure man, of the heavens 

. And the earth revealed the heart? 

. Strong (?) has he made him (Adapa); a ce he has given him. 
. We—what can we do to him? Food of li 

. Bring him, that he may eat.” Food of life 

. They brought him; he ate it not. Water of life 

. They brought him; he drank it not. A garment 

. They brought him; he clothed himself. Oil 

. They brought him; he anointed himself. 

. Anu looked at him; he wondered (?) at him. 

. “Come, Adapa, why dost thou not eat nor drink? 

. Now thou shalt not live; men are mortal (?).” “Ea my lord 
. Said: Thou shalt not eat, thou shalt not drink.” 

. Take him and bring him back to earth. 

pifp aa Sen looked upon him. 


ese ee eee eee ee eee ee eee eee 


. He commanded him and he........... 

. The garment, he commanded him and he clothed himself. 
« Wee Anu wondered greatly at the deed of Ea. 

. The gods of heaven and earth, as many as there are: “Who is thus 


mighty (?)? d 
His command is the command of Anu. Who can surpass [him]?” 


. As now Adapa from the horizon to the zenith of the heavens 
ope looked, he saw his terror...... (z. e., the terror he inspired) 
. [Which] Anu concerning Adapa upon him...... had placed. 

. [The service (?)] of Ea he made his satisfaction. 

. Anu fixed as his lot his lordship in brilliance to the distant future. 


Qh eee Adapa, the seed of mankind, 


. [Who] victoriously broke the wing of the south wind, 
. And to heaven he ascended. “Thus let it be!” 
Parone that which he in evil ways imposed on the people, 


eee sickness which he placed in the bodies of people. 


even dneeee Ninkarrak appeased. 
. Sickness [shall co]me, his disease be violent, 


ck ee destruction shall fall upon him, 
[In] good sleep he shall not rest, 
....Shall overturn (?) the joy of people’s hearts. 


(The remainder is broken away.) 


THE FALL OF MAN 287 


3. A Babylonian Story of Expulsion from a Garden. 

Professor Edward Chiera discovered an interesting tablet 
which perhaps contains a parallel to the Biblical account of the 
Fall of Man. It belongs to a long series of texts which refer to 
the origin of civilization. It reads as follows: 


1. Like vegetable food (7)! —...... 
EA eee ok onc teh ececccnsscce 
ov RS) 
4a. To do that in rebellion he has........ 
4b. he did not obey (?) him. 

Soeay peart 18 full, is full of........5.00 
ER eg Hath alee « is given, 


7. Fear, lo lamentation is given 
8. Unto me thou dost call; 
9. And I at thy call 
10. In my weakness was fleeing. 
11. And I in my person........ 
12. Thy humanity, thy body has not been taken away 
13. For humanity the words of understanding are not 
14, End thy weeping! 
15. From my midst go forth to the steppe! 
16a. To me forever, having taken of the clothing-establishing-tree 
16b. as an outcast thou shalt not return! 
17. The death-emancipating reed the enlightened children who are wretched 
17b. shall not take; 


eee eeeeeeneee 


see we eee eee ees 


Reverse 


. Thou shalt never take. 
. In no way hereafter shalt thou attain release. 
To my ox for threshing, as an outcast thou shalt not return! 
. To my field for irrigating as an outcast thou shalt not return! 
. To my field for tilling as an outcast thou shalt not return! 
. To my work to do it as an outcast thou shalt not return! 
. Go; perform the work; raise the food to eat! 
. I! I will never receive thee! 
9a. Men like thee will perform the work; their mothers and their fathers 
Ob. shall eat of heaven’s food. 
10. Since the hand of the son of the menial has divided the food, their eyes 
are opened...... 
11. As for themselves each one has taken 10 measures of barley; 
12. The children who are servants of their fathers have each taken 10 meas- 
ures of barley for himself; 
13. For each of their fathers barley has been threshed; 
14. Barley, oil, wool, sheep have been brought unto them. 
15. O humanity, be abundant! 


OMI AW RW 


While my translation differs in some slight details from that of 
Professor Chiera, it agrees in all substantial points. We have here 


1 Translated from H. F. Lutz, Selected Sumerian and Babylonian Texts, Philadelphia, 1919, 
No. 103. For another translation, see Edward Chiera, in the American Journal of Semitic yee 
guages, XXXIX, pp. 40-51, and Chiera, Sumerian Religious Texts, No. 30 (Publications of 
Crozer Theological Seminary). 


288 ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


the story of the expulsion of mankind from some place for dis- 
obedience, and the disobedience seems to be connected with a 
tree “that establishes clothing” and with the eating of food that 
opens the eyes, which strikingly corresponds to Gen. 3: 3-8. The 
men addressed in the tablet had been cultivating a tract from which 
they were cast out for this disobedience, just as Adam and Eve 
were expelled from Eden for their disobedience. They are sent 
forth to raise food by toil just as Adam was. It may be that we 
have here the Babylonian account of the same tradition. In other 
details, however, the text here translated differs widely from the 
Biblical account, and Professor Clay thinks it is the story of the 
expulsion of some mutinous slaves from their master’s estate. 
The present writer is inclined to agree with Professor Chiera’s 
view, but it is too soon to pronounce a decisive verdict. 


CHAPTER V 
THE PATRIARCHS BEFORE THE FLOOD 


COMPARISON WITH GENESIS 5. COMPARISON WITH 
GENESIS 4, 


BABYLONIAN LONG-LIVED KINGs. 

1. Babylonian Long-lived Kings. 

Ir has long been known from the writings of Berossos, a Baby- 
lonian priest who died about 260 B. c., that the Babylonians had 
a list of long-lived kings who lived before the Flood. The cunei- 
form original of this list has now been recovered. The tablets 
which contain this list contain also the names of dynasties of 
kings who are said to have ruled after the Flood, some of whom it is 
said ruled some hundreds of years each. Efforts have been made to 
show that the names of the antediluvian patriarchs in Genesis 
are identical with those of Berossos’ antediluvian kings. The re- 
covery of the cuneiform originals puts the whole matter in a new 


light. The cuneiform texts read as follows:! 
Column I 25. the sovereignty to Sippar 
1. Sovereignty descended from 26. passed. 
heaven; 27. At Sippar Enmenduranna 
2. at Eridu was the sovereignty. 28. exercised kingship 21,000 years: 
3. Alulim exercised 29. 1 king 
4. the sovereignty 28,800 years; 30. exercised it 21,000 years. 
5. Alalmar exercised it 36,000 years: 31. Sippar was overthrown; 
6. 2 kings 32 the sovereignty passed to Sur- 
7. 64,800 years exercised it. rippak. 
8. Eridu was overthrown; 33. At Surrippak Uberratum 
9. the sovereignty to Badgurgurru 34. exercised sovereignty 18,600 
10. went years: 
11. At Badgurgurru Enmenluanna 35. 1 king 
12. exercised (sovereignty) 43,200 36. exercised it 18,600 years. 
years; 37. 5 cities, 
13. Enmengalanna 38. 8 kings 
14. exercised it 28,800 years; 39. exercised it 241,200 years. 
15. Dumuzi the shepherd exercised it 40. The deluge overthrew the land. 
36,000 years: 41. After the deluge had overthrown, 
16. 3 kings 42. the sovereignty descended from 
17. their years were 108,000. heaven— 
18. Badgurgurra was overthrown; 43. the sovereignty was at Kish. 
19. the sovereignty passed to Larak. 44. At Kish Gaur 
20. At Larak Sibzianna? 45. was king. 
21. exercised kingship 28,800 years: 46. He exercised (sovereignty) 1200 
22. 1 king years. 
23. exercised it 28,800 years. 47. Khulla-Nidaba, the divine maiden, 
24. Larak was overthrown; 48. exercised it 960 years. 


1 Translated from S. Langdon’s Oxford Editions of Cuneiform Texts, Vol. II, Oxford, 1923, No. 1. 
2 Langdon transliterates the name Eusibzianna, but in his publication of the cuneiform text 
the Eu is omitted. 


289 


290 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Column IT Column ITI 

De ale are buumb os So ae 

2. exercised (sovereignty) 900 (?) 1. from Kish 

years 2. the kingdom 

5 aR Sigs Ves aN ea 3. passed to Eanna. 

Pa ed woe aia ME 4. In Eanna 

5. were companions 5. Meskingashir, 

6. they completed (?) 6. son of Shamash,® 

Pores sateen eae : 7. as lord, 

7. Galumum 8. as king, 

8. ruled 900 (?) years; 9. ruled 325 years. 

9. Zugagib 10. Meskingashir 
10. ruled 840 (?) years;? 11. entered into 

11. A-ri-pi, son of Mashgag, 12. and went out from...... 
12. ruled 720 years; 13. Enmeirgan, 

13. Etana, the shepherd, 14, 15. son of Meskingashir, 
14. who ascended to heaven, 16. king of Erech, 

15. who subdued all lands, 17. the people of Erech 

16. ruled 635 years; 18. strengthened, 

17. Pilikam, 19. as king 

18. son of Etana, 20. ruled 420 years. 

19. ruled 350 years;3 21. Lugalbanda, the shepherd, 
20. Enmenunna 22. ruled 1200 years. 
21. reigned 611 years; 23. Dumuzi, the hunter® (?), 
22. Melam-Kish, 24. Whose city is among fishes, 
23. son of Enmenunna, 25. ruled 100 years. 
24. ruled 900 years; 26. Gilgamesh, 
25. Barsalnunna, 27. whose father 
26. son of Enmenunna, 28. was lord of Kullab, 
27. ruled 1200 years; 29. ruled 126 years. 
28. Mes (?) zamu, son of Barsalnunna, 
29, ruled 2.3. 45 years; 
SUS eh son of Barsalnunna;! 


1 At this point the text of the tablet from Nippur, published by Poebel, Historical and Gram- 
matical Texts, Philadelphia, 1914, No. 2, overlaps the Oxford text. The two texts differ con- 
siderably. Both texts were written during the dynasty of Isin, between 2300 and 2100 B. c. 
The text from Nippur was written 42 years before that at Oxford. In the translation from this 
point on I have followed the Nippur text, except where it is broken. 

2 At this point the Oxford text inserts two kings, Atab and Atabba, one of whom reigned 600 
years, and the other 840. 

3 Here the Oxford text inserts Balikh, son of Etana, who ruled 400 years. 

The Oxford text contains the rest of the column which is broken from the Nippur tablet. 
It gives the following: 


Tupzakh, 140 years Iltasadum, 1200 years 
Tizkar, 306 years *, Enmenbaragigur, 900 years 
Tiku, 900 years Agga, 625 years 


6 The sun-god. 

6 Perhaps “palm-tree-fertilizer” instead of hunter. It is not the usual ideogram for hunter, 
but one element stands for “hand” and the other for “female flower of the date palm.” (See 
Barton, The Origin and Development of Babylonian Writing, Nos. 311(2) and 303(6). 


PATRIARCHS BEFORE THE FLOOD 


Column IV 
(The kingdom) 

1. of Erech 

2. passed to Ur. 
oeiniUr 

4. Mesannipada 

5. was king; 

6. he ruled 80 years. 
7. Meskiagnunna, 
8 

9 
10 


. son of Mesannipada, 


. ruled 30 years. 
ru... 
11. ruled 25 years. 
Popa... ... 
13. 36 years. 
14. 4 kings 
15. ruled 171 years. 
16. As to Ur 
17. the kingdom 
18. passed to Awan.! 


Column V? 

. ruled 21 years. 

. Ishme-Dagan, 

. son of Idin-Dagan, 
. ruled 21 years. 

. Libit-Ishtar, 

. son of Idin-Dagan, 
. ruled 11 years. 

. Ur-Ninib, 

at O1lm....... ; 


CONNMPWHE 


PAP See as) ee wis ¢ 2s @ wee 


Column VI 
1. Total 51 kings — 


2. their years were 18000. .+ 


me VOATS. ..... months 


4. Four times 


ooeeee 


—— 
SOOONNAM PWN Ee 


. in Kish: 

. total 22 kings — 

. their years were 2610+ 
. 6 months, 15 days. 

. Five times 

. in Erech: 

. total 13 kings — 

. their years were 396 — 
» ruled. 

. Three times 

hin Ute 

. total 3 kings — 

. their years were 356 — 
. ruled. 

. Once 

. In Awan: 

. total 1 king — 

. his rule was 7 years. 

. Once 


Fo Llotal feet ) kings — 

. (their years )were 196 — 
. ruled. 

. Twice in Agade: 

. total 21 kings — 

. their years were 125 years 
. 40 days — ruled. 

. Once 

. in the people 

. of Gutium: 

. total 11 kings — 

. their years were 159 years — 
. ruled 

. in Isin (?). 

. Eleven 

. royal cities 

. Tuled. 

. Total 134 kings. 

. Grand total 28876+ 

. years, 

Aes Ae months.’ 


291 


A brief examination of this list of kings is sufficient to convince 
one that until we reach the first dynasty of Ur the material is 
mythical or a combination of myths and legends. Real men do 


1 Seven lines are broken away from the end of the column. 
*The subject-matter shows that several columns are entirely broken away. Dr. Poebel 
estimates that Column V was originally Column X. If this is true, six columns are entirely lost. 
Of Column IV, only a few lines out of the middle remain. 


3 A number of lines are lost at the end of the column. 


A number of the gaps in this text can 


now be supplied from the Oxford text, but as the material has no bearing on the Biblical narratives, 
we have not thought it necessary to take up space with them. 


292 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


not reign 900 years, nor even 140 years, much less 21,000 years— 
not to mention larger numbers. When we find the names of gods 
mixed into the list, that is additional proof that the material is 
not historical. It is, of course, possible that some of the names in 
these earlier dynasties may be those of real men, the length of 
whose lives has been greatly exaggerated by mixing them up with 
myths. With the first dynasty of Ur we come upon historical 
ground. An inscription of King Annipadda, son of Mesannipadda, 
has recently been found. 

A comparison of Berossos’ list of kings who reigned before the 
Deluge with those given in this text will convince any scholar that 
a list like this was the source of Berossos’ information. When we 
make allowance for changes in pronunciation in Babylonian which 
would be sure to occur in the course of 2000 years, and for the cor- 
ruptions which would naturally occur in passing from a Babylonian 
to a Greek spelling, the two lists are seen to be the same, though in 
the 2000 years that elapsed between the writing of our tablets 
and Berossos, the lengths of the reigns of these kings were greatly 
exaggerated. The following parallel column will make this clear: 


Cuneiform List List of Berossos' 
Alulim, 28,800 years Alorus, 36,000 years 
Alalmar, 36,000 years Alaparos, 10,800 years 
Enmenluanna, 43,200 years Amelon, 46,800 years 
Ammenon, 43,200 years 
Enmengalanna, 28,800 years Megalaros, 64,800 years 
Dumuzi, 36,000 years Daonos or Daos, 36,000 years 
Sibzianna, 28,800 years Euedorachos, 64,800 years 
Enmenduranna, 21,000 years Amempsinos, 36,000 years 
Uburratum, 18,600 years Otiartes, 28,800 years 
Xisouthros, 64,800 years 
Total, 241,200 years Total, 432,000 years 


It will be noticed that Berossos added to the list Xisouthros, the 
hero of the Deluge, which the earlier list did not contain, and that 
his list contains two corruptions of the name Enmenluanna. 
Otherwise his list of names corresponds to the cuneiform except 
that he transposed Sibzianna (Amempsinos) and Enmenduranna. 
With one conflation, one transposition, and one addition, his list is 
identical with the ancient cuneiform, except that the numbers of 
regnal years have in most cases been exaggerated. 


1 Professor Clay’s thesis, that the names in Berossos’ list are Semitic (Origin of the Biblical Tra- 
ditions, Ch. VI), appears to be untenable. 


PATRIARCHS BEFORE THE FLOOD 293 


2. Comparison with Genesis 5. 

The interest of all this for the Biblical student centers in the pos- 
sibility that in these names we have the origin of the antediluvian 
Patriarchs. Many attempts have been made to show that the 
names of these Patriarchs was really identical with Berossos’ list 
of names of antediluvian kings, and, when previous editions of 
this book were written, the present writer thought that possible. 
The recovery of the cuneiform names of those kings by the dis- 
covery and publication of the Oxford prism, translated at the be- 
ginning of this chapter, puts the whole problem in a new light. 

It is true that some of the names of the antediluvian Patriarchs 
of the Bible could be derived from those of this old Sumerian list 
of antediluvian kings. Amelon, into which Enmenluanna was cor- 
rupted, became in Akkadian, as the Semitic-Babylonian language 
was called, amélu, which means ‘“‘man.” This could in its. turn be 
translated into Hebrew by two words, ’adham, “man’’ or ’endsh, 
“man’’—words which, when taken as proper names, become, re- 
spectively, Adam and Enosh. Alaparos might conceivably be cor- 
rupted into Abel. Ammenon, another of the forms into which 
Enmenluanna was corrupted, is in Akkadian ummanu, “artificer,” 
“artisan,” which, when translated into Hebrew, becomes Kenan, 
and in an abbreviated form, Cain. Megalaros might conceivably 
through corruption become Mahalel. Dumuzi, which means in 
Sumerian “son of life,” might, when translated into Hebrew, be- 
come “Jared,” “descendant.” Euedorachos might conceivably 
be shortened to Enoch. The Summerian, Enmenduranna, pos- 
sibly translated into Akkadian as Mutu-salal-elu, might appear in 
Hebrew as Methuselah. We may, then, from these antediluvian 
Babylonian kings possibly obtain the following table of equivalents: 


Cuneiform Sumerian Berossos Hebrew 

Alulim Alorus 

Alalmar Alaparos Abel? 
Enmenluanna Ammelon Adam and Enosh 
Enmenluanna Ammenon Kenan and Cain 
Enmengalanna Megalaros Mahalelel 
Dumuzi Daonos Jared 
Enmenduranna Euedorachos Enoch 
Enmenduranna Methuselah. 


It should be noted also that the name of the city Badgurgurru 
means “fortress of workers in bronze.” In Gen. 4:22, Tubal- 
cain is said to have been a metal worker, and in 4:17 Cain is 


294 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


said to have built a city. It does not seem improbable that we 
have here another form of the Biblical tradition. 

By no ingenuity, so far as I can see, can the names of Seth and 
Lamech—two of the Biblical antediluvian Patriarchs, be derived 
from the names of the Sumerian antediluvian kings. It is note- 
worthy, too, that the ages assigned in Genesis 5 to the antediluvian 
Patriarchs correspond closely to those of the reigns of the Baby- 
lonian kings who are said to have reigned just after the Flood. 
It is, therefore, possible that the Hebrews, recognizing that it was 
ludicrous to suppose that men could reign as long as the Babylonian 
kings are said to have reigned, derived the names of their ante- 
diluvian Patriarchs from the names of kings who reigned after the 
Flood. Let us see how this hypothesis will work out: The name, 
Aripi,' the fifth king after the Flood whose name is preserved, may 
also have been read Adimé, and perhaps was so read by the Sume- 
rians themselves. If it came to the Hebrews in this form they would 
naturally equate it with the Hebrew Adam, which means “man.” 

Etana, the shepherd, is said in this list to have gone to heaven. 
This at once suggests the fate of Enoch, who “‘was not; for God took 
him” (Gen. 5 : 24). In the Sumerian the words “‘to heaven’ are 
AN-SU, which may also be read AN-KU. If these words were not 
fully understood by the Hebrews, to whom Sumerian was not only 
a foreign language but a dead language, they might easily be mis- 
taken for a proper name, and would in Hebrew give us Enoch.? 
Another suggestion as to the method of borrowing is also possible. 
Later traditions cherished the name of a king, Enmeduranki, whom 
they called a king of Sippar or Agade.2 Enmeduranki means “‘the 
hero who binds together heaven and earth.” Etana is in our list of 
kings called a king of Kish, but in later times kings of Kish were also 
called kings of Agade. It is altogether probable, therefore, that the 
“hero who binds together heaven and earth” is simply another 
designation of Etana who went to heaven. The last two syllables 


1 Poebel reads the name Arpi, apparently because in another fragmentary tablet he thinks the 
name is Arbum, but both Poebel’s copy and the photograph of the tablet indicate that the reading 
was A-ri-pi. The writer has endeavored to settle the matter by collating both tablets, but both 
have unfortunately crumbled too much to make collation decisive. 

2 Sumerian words which begin with a vowel, when they are taken over into Hebrew, assume a 
guttural at the beginning. Thus the Sumerian AS-TAN, “one,” which became in Semitic Baby- 
lonian istin, comes into Hebrew as ‘esté with an Ayin at the beginning. (See Jer. 1 : 3 and else- 
where.) Ayin in Semitic phonetics frequently changes to Heth. (See Brockelmann’s Vergleich- 
ende Grammatik der Semitischen Sprachen, I, § 55, b, 4.) In accordance with these facts AN-KU 
came into Hebrew as Henok. 

3 He is mentioned in Zimmern’s Ritualtafeln fiir den Wahrsager, Leipzig, 1901, No. 24 : 1, ff., 
as the discoverer of the art of forecasting events by pouring oil on water. 


PATRIARCHS BEFORE THE FLOOD 295 


of Enmeduranki, 7. e., AN-KI, “heaven and earth,” would, if 
taken over into Hebrew, also give Enoch. If we assume that 
Etana and Enoch are the same, we may at a later point be able to 
determine by which of these processes the name is most likely to 
have come into Hebrew. In an old poem, fragments of which 
have been found on some broken tablets from Nineveh, the fortunes 
of Etana were given in detail. He is said to have been carried to 
heaven on the back of an eagle. If he be really the prototype of 
Enoch, this lends a touch of realism to the narrative. 

The Sumerian name Enmenunna means “exalted hero” or 
“exalted man.” A natural translation of this into Semitic Baby- 
lonian about 2000 B. c. would be Mutu-elu,! or, in one word, amelu, 
and an equally natural translation of this into Hebrew would give 
us Enosh. 

Pilikam,? the next name, means in Sumerian “with intelligence to 
build.” In Babylonian Semitic it would be literally Ina-uzni- 
eréSu, or, rendered in one word, wmmanu, “‘artificer.”? The Hebrew 
translation of this is Kenan, which means “‘artificer.”” Melamkish 
gives us the Hebrew Lamech by the simple elision of the first and 
last consonants. All people are lazy and words sometimes wear 
away both at the beginning and at the end.® 

Barsalnunna, translated into Semitic Babylonian, becomes 
Shithu-elu.* Seth may well be a transfer of a part of this name to 
Hebrew. The final radical of the first part of the name may have 
worn away or have been accidentally omitted. 

Meskingashir is resolvable into four elements, MES-KI-INGA*- 
SHIR,° “the hero” or “‘man who is great” or “exalted.” Translate 


1 Poebel has shown, Historical Texts, 114, that EN-ME designates a hero or special kind of 
priest. Mutu in Semitic means both “man” and “a kind of priest”; cf. Muss-Arnolt, Assyrisch- 
Englisch-Deutsches Handwérterbuch, 619, 620, and Knudtzon, El-Amarna Tafeln, No. 55, 43. 
Mutu was a popular element in Semitic proper names about 2000 B. c., but later ceased to be 
employed. 

? The sign kam Poebel failed to recognize. It is No. 364N of Barton’s- Origin and Development 
of Babylonian Writing. It is sometimes employed in early texts instead of other signs which had 
the values ka or kam. Here it is used for sign No. 357 of the work referred to. 

* Langdon makes the suggestion (Sumerian Epic of Paradise, the Flood, andthe Fall of M. an, 
Philadelphia, 1915, p. 56, note 7) that Lamech is the Sumerian LUMHA, an epithet of the Baby- 
lonian god Ea as the patron of music. A more plausible theory would be that.Lamech is a corrup- 
tion of a king’s name, as suggested above, and after it was corrupted it was confused with the 
name of the Sumerian god LAMGA, the constructive god, whose emblem was the sign for carpenter. 
(See Barton, work cited, No. 503.) 

4See Meissner, Seltene assyrische Ideogramme, No. 1139. Seth might also be a transfer to 
Hebrew of a part of the name IItasadum, which, translated into Akkadian, would be Ina-nashi- 
shetu-allik. 

5See Barton, work cited, No. 275(5). IN is the Sumerian verb preformative. 

6See Delitzsch, Swmerisches Glossar, p. 262, f. 


296 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


this into Semitic Babylonian and it becomes Mutu-Sa-elu, which is 
almost exactly Methuselah. 

Enmeirgan becomes when translated into Semitic Mutu-Salal- 
eqla,! and Mahalalel is a much closer transfer of the first two ele- 
ments of this to Hebrew than are Sennacherib, Esar-haddon, 
Merodach-baladan, and Evil-merodach of the names Sin-akhi-irba, 
Ashur-akhi-iddina, Marduk-apal-iddin, and Amel-Marduk. Finally 
Dumuzi means “son of life,’ or “living son,” and Jared? means 
“descendant.” 

The equivalent of Noah does not appear in this list, but there is 
no doubt that he was Ziugiddu, otherwise called Ut-napishtim, of 
the Babylonian accounts of the flood. 

We have then the following equivalents, four of which are Hebrew 
translations of Sumerian names; three, transfers into Hebrew of the 
whole or of parts of Semitic Babylonian equivalents of these 
Sumerian names, two of which are transfers to Hebrew of portions 
of a Sumerian original, and one of which, Noah, is still unexplained. 


Sumerian Semitic Babylonian Hebrew 
Adimé Adam 
Barsalnunna Shithu-elu Seth 
Enmenunna Mutu-elu (or amelu) Enosh 
Pelikam Ina-uzni-ereshu (or ummanu) Kenan 
Enmeirgan Mutu-salal-gan Mahalalel 
Dumuzi Apal-napisti Jared 
Etana Enoch 
Meskingashir Mutu-sa-elu Methuselah 
Melamkish Lamech 
Ziugiddu Noah 


Of course, it may be objected that our list of kings did not furnish 
the originals of these patriarchs, since there are more kings than 
patriarchs, even though some of the names of kings have been lost 
by the breaking of the tablet. In this connection, however, one 
should remember that in 1 Chron. 1-9, many names which appear 
in the earlier books of the Bible are omitted, and that in Matt. 1 : 8, 
three kings—Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah—are omitted from the 
genealogy of Christ. (Compare 2 Kings 11-15.) It appears, then, 
that Biblical writers did not always copy a full list. 

It thus seems that the tablet translated above may be related to 
the text of Genesis 5 in the names of the patriarchs through one or 

1 See Barton, work cited, No. 229(18). 


2Jared might, of course, be a corruption of Irad. It could have arisen by the wearing away 
of the Hebrew letter Ayin. 


PATRIARCHS BEFORE THE FLOOD 297 


the other of its lists, as well as in the matter of their ages. When 
we recall that the tablet was apparently written in the year 2170 
B. C., it seems probable that it may be a source from which the 
Biblical names came. 

3. Comparison with Genesis 4. 

But our examination of the matter cannot stop here. In Gen. 4: 
16-23 there is a list of the descendants of Cain strikingly similar to 
the list of the descendants of Seth in Genesis5. Ifthe names of Adam 
and Abel be supplied from Gen. 4: 1,2, the two lists appear as follows: 


Genesis 4 Genesis 5 
Adam Adam 
Abel Seth ) Seth 

Enosh Enosh 
Cain (Hebrew TP) Kenan (Hebrew }"p) 
Enoch Mahalalel 
Trad (Hebrew 11’)y) Jared (Hebrew TY) 
Mehujael Enoch 
Methushael Methuselah 
Lamech Lamech 

Noah 


The close parallelism of these two lists of names is really greater 
than it appears to the English reader to be. Cain, which means 
“artificer,” is in Hebrew the same word as Kenan, lacking only one 
formative letter at the end. Irad and Jared differ in Hebrew only 
by the wearing away of one consonant. Mehujael is as much like 
Mahalalel, and Methushael as much like Methuselah as the Assyrian 
name of Tiglath-pileser, Tukultu-apal-esharra, is like Tiglath- 
pileser, while Enoch and Lamech are the same. 

The importance of this likeness arises from the fact that the so- 
called critical scholars claim that these two lists of names are in 
reality the same original list as it came through two lines of tradi- 
tion and was worked up differently by two writers. This view has 
been vigorously opposed by some conservative scholars, notably by 
the late Professor Green, of Princeton.! 

Between rival critical hypotheses it is not the function of archx- 
ology to decide. It must be admitted, however, that the names of 
the descendants of Genesis 4 can be equated with those of our Baby- 
lonian kings, as well as those of Gen. S. Adam, Seth, Enosh, Cain, 

Oe 1See his Unity of the Book of Genesis, New York, 1895, Chapter II, 


298 ARCHAKOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Enoch, Mehujael, and Methushael would be derived exactly as it 
has been explained that the corresponding names of Genesis 5 could 
be derived. It only remains to explain the names Abel and Irad. 
It will be noticed that Abel occupies in the list a position next to 
Adam and Cain; Abel is also said to have been a shepherd. In the 
list of Babylonian kings Etana the shepherd comes in between 
Adimé (Aripi) and Pilikam, the equivalent of Cain. It is probable, 
therefore, that Etana is the king that corresponds to Abel. Etana 
is described in the Sumerian as “‘the shepherd who went to heayen,”’ 
SIBA LU AN-SU NI-IB-E-DA. If the two words SIBA LU be- 
came detached and misunderstood as a proper name, the s at the 
beginning, according to a well known phonetic law, could become h 
and give us the Hebrew Abel. Irad may also be ir-iu, a corruption 
of ZI-IR-TU, a name of the mother of Dumuzi, who may at times 
have been referred to as the son of ZI-IR-TU.t These possibilities 
are not proof that the names arose as suggested, but are not without 
weight. 

If Abel arose from the traditions of Etana and Enoch did also, 
and if the names of Genesis 4 are derived from the list of Babylonian 
kings, then Etana figures twice in the fourth chapter of Genesis. 
If Enoch is a fragment of the name Enmeduranki, a possibility 
already recognized, it is not difficult to understand how Etana 
came into the tradition twice. 


1 The possible connection of Abel with the Alaparos of Berossos, pointed out above, p. 293, 
should also be borne in mind. 


CHAPTER VI 


A BABYLONIAN ACCOUNT OF THE FLOOD, FROM A 
TABLET WRITTEN AT NINEVEH IN THE SEVENTH 
CENTURY B. C.1 


TRANSLATION OF THE TEXT. CoMPARISON WITH GENESIS 6-9, ANOTHER BABYLONIAN 


VERSION. 


1. Translation of the Text. 


OM NOMRWOe 


. Gilgamesh said to him, to Utnapishtim, the far-away: 
. “T look upon thee, O Utnapishtim, 

. Thy appearance is unchanged; thou are like me; 

- Thou art not at all different, thou art like me. 


Thy courage is unbroken, to make combat, 
On thy side thou liest down—on thy back. 


. [Tell me] how hast thou advanced and in the assembly of the gods hast 


found life?” 


. Utnapishtim spoke to him, to Gilgamesh:. 

- I will reveal to thee, O Gilgamesh, the secret story, 

. And the decision of the gods to thee will I relate. 

- Shurippak, a city which thou knowest, 

. Is situated on the bank of the Euphrates. 

. That city was old and the gods in it— 

- Their hearts prompted them—the great gods—to make a deluge. 
. [There drew near] their father Anu, 

. Their councillor, the warrior Ellil, 

- Their herald, Enmashtu, 

. Their hero, Ennugi. 

. The lord of wisdom, Ea, counselled with them : 

. Their words he repeated to the reed-hut: 

- “O reed-hut, reed-hut, O wall, wall, 

- O reed-hut, hearken; O wall, give heed! 

- O man of Shurippak, son of Ubaratutu, 

- Pull down thy house, build a ship, 

. Leave thy possessions, take thought for thy life, 

. Leave thy gods, thy life save! 

. Embark seed of life of all kinds on a ship! 

- The ship which thou shalt build, 

- Measure well its dimensions, 

. Make to correspond its breadth and its length; 

- Upon the ocean thou shalt launch it.” 

- T understood and spoke to Ea, my lord: 

. “{I understand], my lord; what thou hast thus commanded 
. I will honor and will do. 

- [But] what shall I say to the city, the people, and the elders?” 
- Ea opened his mouth and spake, 


1 Translated from Haupt’s Das Babylonische N imrodepos, p. 134, f. 
20€ 


ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


. He said unto me, his servant: 
. “Thus shalt thou say unto them: 
. Know that me—Ellil hates me. 


(Lines 49-55 are broken away.) 


. The strong...... brought what was needed. 

. On the fifth day I raised its frame. 

. According to its plan (?) its walls were 120 cubits high; 
. 120 cubits correspondingly was the extent of its roof. 

. I laid down its hull; I enclosed it. 

. I constructed it in storys, up to six; 

. I divided it [without (?)] into seven parts. 

. Its interior I divided into nine parts. 


Fe Bee I fastened in its midst. 


. L looked out a rudder, and prepared what was necessary. 
. 6 sars of bitumen I poured over its outside (?); 

. 3 sars of bitumen I poured over its interior. 

. 3 sars of oil the people who carry jars brought. 

. Besides a sar of oil which was used as a libation, 

. 2 sars of oil the ship’s captain stowed away. 

. For the people I slaughtered bullocks. 

. I slaughtered lambs daily. 

. Must, beer, oil, and wine, 

. I gave the people to drink like river-water. 

. I made a feast, like a new year’s festival. 

. L opened (?) [a box of ointment]; I put ointment in my hand. 
. [By the setting] of great Shamash, the ship was finished. 
. [To move it from the stocks] was difficult. 

. The men cleared the ship’s ways above and below. 


OUR Wee ta rsh RE eS. two-thirds of it. 


. With all the silver I had I laded it. 

. With all the gold I had I laded it. 

. With all the living things I had I laded it. 

_ Lembarked on the ship all my family and kindred. 

- Cattle of the field, beasts of the field, craftsmen, all, I embarked. 

_ A fixed time Shamash had appointed, [saying]: 

" “When the senders of rain shall rain upon you a mighty rainstorm at 


evening, 


. Embark upon the ship and close thy door.” 
. The appointed time approached, 


_ The senders of rain sent at evening a heavy rainstorm. 
. I observed the appearance of the day, 
. The day was terrible to look upon. 


1 The sun, 


A BABYLONIAN ACCOUNT OF THE FLOOD 


. IT embarked upon the ship, I closed my door. 

. To the master of the ship, to Puzur-Amurru, the sailor, 
. I entrusted the structure together with its contents. 

. When dew-dawn began to brighten, 

. There arose from the horizon a black cloud; 

. The god Adad thundered in its midst, 

. While Nebo and Sharru marched before; 

. They went as heralds over mountain and country. 

. Nergal tore away the anchor, 

. Enmashtu advanced, the floods he poured down; 

. The Anunnaki raised their torches, 

. At their brightness the land trembled. 

. The raging of Adad reached to heaven; 

. All light was turned to darkness 

7 (eS eta DO KE Piss a ekliw deat 

. One day [raged the storm (?)] 

. Swiftly it raged [and the waters covered] the mountains, 
. Like a battle array over the people it swept. 

. No one could see his fellow; 

. No more were people recognized in heaven; 

. The gods were frightened at the deluge, 

. They fled, they climbed to the highest heaven; 

. The gods crouched like dogs, they lay down by the walls. 
. Ishtar cried like a woman in travail, 

. Wailed the queen of the gods with her beautiful voice: 
. “Those creatures are turned to clay, 

. Since I commanded evil in the assembly of the gods; 

. Because I commanded evil in the assembly of the gods, 
. For the destruction of my people I commanded battle. 
. I alone bore my people; 

. Like spawn of fishes they fill the sea.” 

. The gods along with the Anunnaki wept with her, 

. The gods bowed, sat as they wept; 

. Closed were their lips; [silent their] assembly. 

. Six days and seven nights 

. Blew the wind, the deluge the flood overpowered. 

. When the seventh day approached, the deluge was prolonging the 


battle 


- Which, like an army, it had waged. 

. The sea calmed, the destruction abated, the flood ceased. 

. I looked upon the sea, the roaring was stilled 

. And all mankind was turned to clay; 

. Like logs all were floating about. 

. I opened the window, the light fell on my cheek; 

. I was overcome, I sat down, I wept; 

. Over my cheek streamed the tears. 

. I looked in all directions—a fearful sea! 

. After twelve days an island appeared; 

- Toward mount Nizir the ship stood off; 

- Mount Nizir held it fast, that it moved not. 

. One day, two days, mount Nizir held it that it moved not, 
. Three days, four days, mount Nizir held it that it moved not, 
. Five days, six days, mount Nizir held it that it moved not, 
. When the seventh day approached, 

. I brought out a dove and let her go; 


301 


302 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


148. The dove went out and returned; 

149. There was no resting-place and she came back. 

150. I brought out a swallow and let it go; 

151. The swallow went out and returned. 

152. There was no resting-place and it came back. 

153. I brought out a raven and let it go; 

154. The raven went out, the diminution of the waters it saw; 
155. It alighted, it waded about, it croaked, it did not come back. 
156. I disembarked [all]; to the four winds I poured a libation. 
157. I appointed a sacrifice on the top of the mountain peak; 
158. Seven by seven I arranged the sacrificial vessels; 

159. Beneath them I piled reeds, cedar wood, and myrtle. 

160. The gods smelled the savor, 

161. The gods smelled the sweet savor, 

162. The gods above the sacrificer collected like flies. 

163. When at length the queen of the gods drew near, 

164. She raised the great bows (?) which Anu at her wish had made. 
165. “O ye gods, as I shall not forget the jewel of my neck 

166. These days I shall not forget—to eternity I shall remember! 
167. Let the gods come to the sacrifice, 

168. But let Ellil not come to the sacrifice, 

169. For he was not wise; he sent the deluge, 

170. And numbered my people for destruction.” 

171. When at last Ellil drew near, 

172. He saw the ship, Ellil was angry, 

173. His heart was filled against the gods and the Igigi.1 

174. “Who then has come out alive? 

175. No man must escape from destruction.” 

176. Then Enmashtu opened his mouth and spake, 

177. He said to the warrior Ellil: 

178. “Who but Ea accomplished the thing? 

179. Even Ea knows every undertaking.” 

180. Ea opened his mouth and spake, 

a 181. He said to the warrior Ellil: 

5 182. “O thou, leader of the gods, warrior, 

| 183. How, how couldst thou without thought send a deluge? 

| 184. On the sinner let his sin rest, 

185. On the wrongdoer rest his misdeed. 

186. Forbear, let it not be done, have mercy, [that men perish not]. 
187. Instead of thy sending a deluge 

| 188. Had the lion come and diminished the people! 

) 189. Instead of thy sending a deluge 

| 190. Had a wolf come and diminished the people! 
. 

| 


191. Instead of thy sending a deluge 
192. Had a famine come and the land [depopulated!] 
193. Instead of thy sending a deluge 
194. Had a pestilence come and the land [depopulated!] 
195. I have not divulged the decisions of the great gods. 
. 196. I anit Adrakhasis to see a dream and the decisions of the gods he 
eard. 
) 197. Now take counsel concerning him.” 
198. Then went Ea on board the ship, 
199. He took my hand and brought me forth, 
. 200. He brought forth my wife and made her kneel at my side; 


1 The spirits of heaven. 


A BABYLONIAN ACCOUNT OF THE FLOOD 303 


201. He turned us toward each other and stood between us; he blessed us: 
202. “In former time Utnapishtim was a man; 

203. Now let Utnapishtim and his wife be like gods—even like us; 

204. Let Utnapishtim dwell afar off at the mouth of the rivers!” 

205. He took me and caused me to dwell afar off at the mouth of the rivers. 


2. Comparison with Genesis 6-9. 

The above account of the deluge so closely resembles that in the 
Bible (Gen. 6 :9—9:19), that nearly all scholars recognize that 
they are two versions of the same narrative.! In each case there is 
a divine revelation to the hero of the deluge that a catastrophe is 
coming of which every one else is ignorant. They both relate the 
building of the vessel, the “pitching it within and without with 
pitch,”’ the embarkation, the flood in which other men are de- 
stroyed, the resting of the ship on a mountain, the sending out 
of the birds, the disembarkation, the sacrifice, and the intimation 
that in future a deluge shall not be. 

When the Babylonian account is compared with the Biblical, 
there are two striking differences. 1. The Babylonian story makes 
the flood local; the Biblical, general. 2. The Babylonian story, 
fascinating poetry though it is, has a conception of deity in strong 
contrast with the dignity of the Biblical monotheism. The Baby- 
lonian gods disagree; they blame each other; they crouch with fear 
like dogs; they come swarming about the sacrifice like hungry flies! 
Nothing could more strikingly illustrate the inspiration of the Bib- 
lical story than to measure it against the background of this Baby- 
lonian poem, which is clearly a variant version of it. 

3. Another Babylonian Version. 

From the library of Ashurbanipal there has come another ver- 
sion of the deluge, which represents the purpose of its coming as 
different. According to this version, men had sinned and had been 
afflicted with famine, after which they reformed for a time. The 
famine was removed, but soon, apparently, they sinned again. Pes- 
tilence was then sent upon them. An appeal brought mitigation 
of their sufferings, but soon they plunged into sin again. This 
time they were punished with unfruitfulness of the land and of 
their race, but soon sinned as before. When all other punish- 
ments had failed, as a last resort the flood was sent. 

As this account does not so closely resemble that in Genesis, it is 
not translated here. Those who wish to read it are referred to Rogers, 
Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament, New York, 1912, p. 114, ff. 


1 Or two accounts of the same event. 


CHAPTER VII 


AN ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION AND FLOOD, FROM 
A TABLET WRITTEN AT NIPPUR BEFORE 2000 B. C. 


TRANSLATION. COMPARISON WITH THE OTHER VERSION. 
1. Translation. 


This tablet was published by Dr. Arno Poebel, of Breslau. It 
was apparently written in the time of the dynasty of Nisin, but at 
any rate not later than the period of the first dynasty of Babylon. 
Only a part of the tablet has been found, so that the narrative is 
incomplete both at the beginning and at the end. Possibly the 
remaining portion may some time be found in the museum at Con- 
stantinople. The tablet is inscribed on both sides, and there are 
three columns to the side. The portions that are still extant read 
as follows:! 


Column I (about three-fourths of the column missing) 


eeoeoeereveereeee seer seeeeeeeevreseeeeereeeree es eee & 


eoewreereeoereoe wre eee eee eee eee eer eee ee eee ee ee 


“My human-kind from its destruction I will [raise up]; 

With the aid of Nintu my creation.......... I will raise up; 

The people in their settlements I will establish; 

The city, wherever man creates one—indeed its protection—therein I will 
give him rest. 

Our house—its brick may he cast in a clean spot! 

Our places in a clean place may he establish!” 

Its brilliant splendor, the temple platform, he made straight, 

The exalted regulations he completed for it; 

The land he divided; a favorable plan he established. 

After Anu, Enlil,? Enki,? and Ninkharsag 

The black-headed‘ race had created, 

All that is from the earth, from the earth they caused to spring, 

Cattle and beasts of the field suitably they brought into being. 


1 Translated from A. Poebel’s Historical and Grammatical Texts in the University of Pennsyl- 
vania’s “ University Museum’s publications of the Babylonian Section,” Vol. V, Philadelphia, 1914, 
No. 1. 

2 Often called Bel. 

3 Called Ea. 

‘A term by which the Semites of Babylonia designated themselves. The Sumerians shaved 
their heads. 


304 


ANOTHER CREATION AND FLOOD ACCOUNT 305 


Here the first column ends. The passage opens in the midst of 
the speech of some deity—perhaps N inkharsag (a Sumerian name of 
Ishtar) or possibly Enlil, the god of N ippur. First the deity tells 
how mankind, which has been overthrown, shall be raised up again. 
Then we are told how he perfected plans for the accomplishment of 
this purpose, and lastly how four deities called into being men and 
animals. 

Column II (about three-fifths of the text is missing) 


eee MNase ee See eRe es a6 SS 86 eS ede eee ee ec ee deen ee ese 


Se ee Mrs eee re ome eee 

2° a I will turn my eye upon him.......... 

1 a ae Pree Ol tie waNd toon ess eae cece Sie dcs 
AGIs Gi cia PROVRACY tee ee i 

fe a of royalty by him was determined; 

The exalted palace of the royal throne was by him set apart, 
The exalted precepts.......... he made perfect, 

In clean places..:....... CLOG rie. oy oh he founded, 


Their names were named, they were allotted to guardian-spirits (?) 
Of these cities Eridu—the chief command to Nudimmud he gave, 
Unto the second the nisag-priests of Umma (?) he gave, 

Thirdly, Larak to Pabilkharsag he gave, 

Fourthly, Sippar as the dwelling of Shamash he gave, 

Fifthly, Shurippak unto Lamkurru he gave. 

Their names were assigned; to guardian-spirits (?) they were allotted; 
Its rampart (?), a wall (?) he raised up, he established; 

Small rivers, canals (?), and water-courses (?) he established. 


The last part of this column relates how five cities were established 
by some deity. Of what the first part treated we cannot make out 
from the few fragments of lines that are still legible. 


Column III 


Pi ite Se lOleLe tise 6M 6) 6-0 le 5 © 6 6 6 8 6 0 00 6 a 6 eb Ob 6 Oo 


AD IS ET oe CO a a oe a Te ee aS 


mpeiand the sway of Anu................ 
SCE a 
es ay ae vob dee os 


se kien Cae we S16. eo 9G © le 8 0 6 6 6 8 we 8 6 6 8 8 oe 6 


306 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


In this column the narrative has passed to the story of the deluge. 
The gods have determined to send a deluge; Ziugiddu in conse- 
quence constructed an idol from wood (compare Isa. 40 : 20), and 
earnestly worshiped it, seeking oracles for his guidance. 


Column IV 


For the settlement (?) the gods a wall (?).......... 
Ziugiddu stood by its side, he heard.......... 
““At the wall at my left side stand.......... 
At the wall I will speak a word to thee 
O my brilliant one, let there enter thy ear.......... 
By our hand a deluge..:....... will be sent. 
The seed of mankind to destroy.......... 
Is the momentous decision of the assembly (of the gods); 
The words of Anu and Enlil.......... 
Their kingdom, their rule.......... 
To-them::3 2 cts See fs 


It is clear from these fragmentary lines that Ziugiddu is being 
informed of the approaching deluge. It is also clear that some of 
the elements of the narrative are identical with some of the elements 
of the one discussed in Chapter VI. Ziugiddu is commanded to 
stand by a wall, where some deity will speak to him. This ap- 
pears in the other version in the form: 


“O reed-hut, reed-hut, O wall, wall, 
O reed-hut, hearken; O wall, give heed! 
O man of Shurippak, son of Ubartutu, 
Pull down thy house, build a ship, etc. 


In that account, too, the assembly of the gods is also referred to in 
line 120, ff. These are examples of the way the same theme, differ- 
ently treated, turns up in different forms. 


Column V 
The evil winds, the wind that is hostile, came; all of them descended, 
The deluge.......... came on with them 


Seven days and seven nights 

The deluge swept over the land, 

The evil wind made the huge boat tremble. 

Shamash? came forth, on heaven and earth he shone; 
Ziugiddu the ship at the top uncovered, 

The peace of Shamash, his light, entered into the boat. 
Ziugiddu, the king 

Before Shamash bowed his face to the earth. 

The king—an ox he sacrificed, a sheep offered as oblation. 


eeeceeeeereereereeeee eee evrere sere vr eee eeereee eee 


1 See Part II, Chapter VI, line 21, ff. 27. ¢., the sun. | 


ANOTHER CREATION AND FLOOD ACCOUNT 307 


In this column we have a fragment which relates some details 
similar to those told in lines 128, 129, and 136-138 of the account 
given in Chapter VI. 

Column VI 


By the life of heaven and the life of earth ye shall conjure him, 

That he may raise up from you; 

Anu and Enlil by the soul of heaven and the soul of earth ye shall conjure, 
That they may raise up from you 

The curse that has come upon the land, that they may remove it. 
Ziugiddu the king 

Before Anu and Enlil bowed his face to the earth. 

Life like a god’s he gave to him, 

An immortal spirit like a god’s he brought to him. 

Then Ziugiddu the king, 

Of the seed that was cursed, lord of mankind he made; 

In the fruitful land, the land of Dilmun.......... they made him dwell 


PaeLe 2 SS SS) S18 STE OO Oe COC ee ech e tre wneeeeTeeves 


At this point the last column is hopelessly broken. It is clear, 
however, from the part which remains that Ziugiddu is in this 
narrative translated to the Isle of the Blest as was Utnapishtim 
in the account translated in Chapter VI, lines 202-205.1 Indeed 
there is reason to believe that the two accounts of the flood are 
divergent versions of the same story. In addition to the likenesses 
already mentioned, the names of the two heroes, though they 
appear so different, are the same in meaning. Utnapishtim (or 
Unapishtim) means ‘“‘day of life,” or ‘“‘day-life,” while Ziugiddu 
means “Life-day prolonged.” 

2. Comparison with the Other Version. 

Although this tablet is much broken, so that we have not the whole 
of the story, it is clear from the parts that we have that in this version 
preserved at Nippur the story was much shorter than in the form 
translated in Chapter VI, which was preserved in the library of Ashur- 
banipal. It was also combined with a briefer account of the crea- 
tion than that translated in Chapter I from Ashurbanipal’s library. 

Of this Nippurian version of the creation story we have in this 
tablet only the small fragments preserved in Columns I and II. It 
is, however, probable that the Nippurian version of the creation 
was in its main features similar to that preserved in the library at 
Nineveh, only more brief. 

If this be so, the conquest of the dragon Tiamat is here attributed 
to Enlil of Nippur, as in the other version it is attributed to Marduk 
of Babylon, and as in Psa. 74 : 13, 14, it is attributed to Jehovah. 


1See p. 303. 


308 ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


This older account from Nippur agrees in one respect more nearly 
with the Biblical account than the one from the library at Nineveh 
does, for it represents Ziugiddu as a very pious man, who was ap- 
parently saved from destruction on account of his piety, and in 
blessing him God removed the curse as Jehovah did in Gen. 8 : 21. 


CHAPTER VIII 


AN ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN OF A CITY AND THE 
BEGINNING OF AGRICULTURE, FROM A TABLET 
WRITTEN AT NIPPUR BEFORE 2000 B. C. 


TRANSLATION. COMPARISON WITH BIBLICAL MATERIAL. 


Tuis tablet begins with a description of a place the name of 
which is not with certainty identified. Possibly it was Eridu, but 
probably Dilmun. 


1. Translation. 
Column I} 


1. Holy is [the place] where you are; 
2. The mountain Dilmun is holy. 
3. Holy is the place where you are; 
Be ee «i the mountain Dilmun is holy. 
5. The mountain Dilmun is holy, the mountain Dilmun is pure, 
6. The mountain Dilmun is pure, the mountain Dilmun is brilliant. 
7. Alone in Dilmun they lay down; 
8. Where Enki and his consort lay, 
9. That place is pure; that place is brilliant. 
10. Alone in Dilmun they [lay]; 
11. Where Enki and Ninella lay, 
12. That place is pure, that place is brilliant. 
13. In Dilmun the raven cried not, 
14. The dar-bird its dar-cry uttered not. 
15. The deadly lion destroyed not, 
16. The wolf a lamb seized not, 
17. The dog the weak kid tore not, 
18. The dun?-animal the food-grain destroyed not, 
19. She planned not for young offspring... 
20. The birds of heaven their offspring hatched not, 
21. Doves laid not eggs (?) 
22. Of eye-disease, “it is eye-disease,” one said not; 
23. Of headache, “it is headache,” one said not. 
24. To a mother, “mother,” one said not, 
25. To a father, “father,” one said not. 
26. In the holy place a libation was poured not; in the city one drank not; 
27. The river-man “cross it?” said not; 
28. The overseer filled no right hand; 


1 Translated from Langdon, The Sumerian Epic of Paradise, the Flood, and the Fall of Man, 
Philadelphia, 1915, Plates I and II. Langdon, as his title shows, regards the text as a descrip- 
tion of Paradise, the flood, and the fall of man,—a view that the present writer cannot share. 

2 The sign for dun was the picture of a pig. The animal in question was, therefore, probably a 
sow. 


309 


33. 
34. 
30. 
36. 


ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


. The musician “sing,” said not; 

. The prince of the city spoke not. 

. Ninella to her father Enki said: 

. “A city thou hast founded, a city thou hast founded, its destiny thou 


hast fixed; 
In Dilmun a city thou hast founded, 
Sree tee oe thou hast founded a city, 
Ro als. Dae a canal there is not 
Pe ee See thou hast founded a city.” 


The rest of the first column is broken away; probably about nine 
lines are missing. 

All the first column is descriptive of a place inhabited only by 
a god and goddess. Many activities are absent, because there is 
no one there to carry them on. Lines 16-21 remind one a little 
of Isa. 11 : 6-9. 

After the break the text continues: 


0 90 SED Uy Go NO 


Column II 


. “From the bright covering of thy great heaven may the waters flow, 


May thy city be refreshed with water, may it drink, 
May Dilmun be refreshed with water, may it drink, 


. May the deep of bitter water flow as a deep of sweet water. 


May thy city be a resting, an abode of the people, 
May Dilmun be a resting, an abode of the people. 


. Now, O sun-god, shine forth, 


O sun-god, stand in heaven; 


. Bring open water from the womb of the land! 

. [And] fish, O moon-god, from the water. 

. In the water-course on the face of the land, O earth’s sweet water come! 
. That from the bright covering of the great heavens water may flow, 
. Its city be refreshed, may drink, 

. Dilmun be refreshed, may drink, 

. The deep of bitter water flow as a deep of sweet water, 

. The fields and meadows...... 

. The city be a house for the multitudes of the land, 

. Dilmun be a house for the multitudes of the land. 

. To shine may the sun-god come forth—let it be so. 

. He who alone is wise (7. e. Enki) 

. To Nintu, mother of the land...... 


(Lines 22-30 describe with a frankness common among primitive people a 
marital union of the god and goddess. In many parts of the world it 
has been thought that acts of creation proceed from such unions.) 


. Enki, the father of Damgalnunna, his word spoke. 
. Ninkharsag flooded the fields, 

. The fields received the waters of Enki. 

. It was the first day whose month is first; 

. It was the second day whose month is second; 

. It was the third day whose month is third; 

. It was the fourth day whose month is fourth; 


BEGINNING OF AGRICULTURE 311 


. It was the fifth day whose month is fifth; 

. It was the sixth day whose month is sixth; 

. It was the seventh day whose month is seventh; 

. It was the eighth day [whose month is eighth]; 

. It was the ninth day whose month is ninth, the month of outpouring of 


43. 
. [Nintu], mother of the land, 
45. 


the water. 
Like fat, like fat, like abundant sweet oil, 


A ee had brought them forth. 


In the first part of the above column the description of the city 
is continued. As a consequence of the union of the gods, water 
flowed to irrigate the land. Lines 34—42 tell in a quaint way how 
the waters continued to come for nine months and nine days. 


10 90 SION UB Go Nr 


Column III 


Ninshar on the bank of the river cried (?): 
“QO Enki, for me are they filled! they are filled!” 


. His messenger, Usmu, he called: 


“Man, their favorite son, has not been purified, 


. Ninshar, their favorite has not purified.” 


His messenger, Usmu, answered: 
“Man, their favorite son, has not been purified, 


. Ninshar the favorite has not purified.” 

. My king, the storm-bringer, the storm-bringer, 

. His way at once to the boat went. 

. Two streams (?), like Shamash, he carried. 

. He closed the hatch. With fire he made purification. 

. Enki flooded the fields; 

. The fields received the waters of Enki. 

. It was the first day whose month is first; 

. It was the second day whose month is second; 

. It was the ninth day whose month is ninth, the month of the outpouring 


of waters. 


. Like fat, like fat, like abundant sweet oil, 

. [Ninshar] like fat, 

. Ninshar had brought them forth. 

. Ninkurra! [on the bank of the river] c[ried (?)] 

. “O Enki, for me they are filled! they are filled!” 
. His messenger, Usmu, he called: 

. “Man, their favorite son, has not been purified; 
. Ninkurra the favorite has not purified.” 

. His messenger, Usmu, answered: 

. “Man, their favorite son, has not been purified; 
. Ninkurra, the favorite, has not purified.” 

. My king, the storm-bringer, the storm-bringer, 

. His way at once to the boat went. 

. Two streams (?), like Shamash, he carried. 

. He closed the hatch. With fire he made purification. 
. Enki flooded the fields 

. The fields received the waters of Enki. 


1 Apparently another name of Ninshar. 


312 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


35. It was the first day whose month is first; 

36. It was the ninth day whose month is ninth, the month of the outpouring of 
waters. 

37. Like fat, like fat, like abundant sweet oil, 

38. Ninkurra like fat had brought them forth. 

39. The goddess Takku! to receive his outpouring. ..... 

40. Ninkurra to Takku [concerning the outpouring] spoke: 

41. “T will irrigate thee with my irrigation. ..,.. 

42. With favorable words will I speak...... 

43. The one alone that will restrain it...... 

44, Enki for me shall.......... 


The rest of the column, consisting of two or three lines, is missing. 
The repetition in this column is characteristic of early poetry. 
Primitive peoples are fond of iteration, and in the description of the 
way the waters came it was to them very effective. 


Column IV (about twelve lines are broken from the tablet at the beginning) 


13. [To Takku to receive the outpouring].......... 
15. vos vecdvdsyecide uk 

4 siae whemstede eae te in the garden: ...) 0 cya cnn eee 
D1 oo sincaomy hi ojho bons Soe ee 

nh Baad st tae em ae tree (?) let him plant, 

LUGS OY pesaba pupa pte, tree (?) let him plant, 


20. At the explanation of the great outpouring let my begotten stand (?). 
21. Let the two gu-ba be filled with water, 

22. Abundant water let him pour out, 

23. Reservoir water let him pour out, 

24. The barren land let him irrigate, 

25. As gardener.......... let him go forth (?), 

26. On the bank, along the bank, let.......... 

27. Who art thou? The garden.......... 

28. For Enki, the gardener.......... 


(Six lines are here broken away.) 


So PDOs wan eee tree (?) he planted, 

6, The eaves tree (?) he planted; at its base he rested. 

37. Enki turned his eyes to him; his sceptre he lifted up; 

38. Enki to Takku took his way. 

39. At the tree he said: ‘‘A holy revelation, a holy revelation!” 

40. “Who is it that thou art?” 

41. “I am a gardener; joyful.......... 

42. For a price I will give thee.” 

43, Takku with joyful heart at the tree (?) the revelation beheld, 

44, Enki to Takku explained his outpouring. 

45. The promised fruit was given to him, 

46, ACEC. Aes eee tree (?) it was given to him, 

a7 At theo ae tree (?) it was given to him, 

48. Takku received the outpouring; with the left hand he grasped it; with the 
right he seized it. 


1In a recently published syllabary from Ashur, Takku is defined as a goddess. 


BEGINNING OF AGRICULTURE 313 


~ 


From the parts of column IV which are still legible, it appears 
that the messenger was revealing to Takku the secrets of agri- 
culture. This corresponds to the statement in Gen. 9: 20, that 
“Noah began to be a husbandman.”’ 

At the beginning of Column V some seven lines have crumbled 
away, and the beginnings of eight more have also become illegible. 


Column V 


7. [The wood-plant grew,] 

8. [The salt-plant] grew, 

BRE ee iis x 40. plant] grew, 
10. [The a-pa-shar-plant] grew, 
11. (The tu-tu-plant] grew, 
2 a plant] grew, 
US 6 rr plant] grew, 
14. [The cassia] plant grew. 
15. “O Enki, for me they are brought forth, they are brought forth.” 
16. To his messenger, Usmu, he spoke, he said: 
17. “The plants—their fate forever [I have determined.”’] 
18. What is this? What is this?” 
19. His messenger, Usmu, returned: 


21. “My king has commanded the wood-plant, 
22. That it may be cut off and eaten. 

23. My king has commanded the salt-plant, 

24. That it may be cut off and eaten. 

25. My king has commanded the.......... plant, 
26. That it may be cut off [and eaten]. 

27. My king has commanded the a-fa-shar-plant, 
28. That it may be cut off and eaten. 

29. [My king] has commanded the tu-tu-plant, 

30. [That it may be cut off] and eaten. 


31. [My king has commanded the.......... plant,] 
32. [That it may be cut off and eaten,] 
33. [My king has commanded the.......... plant,] 


34. That it may be cut off and eaten. 

35. [My king] has commanded the cassia plant, 

36. That it may be cut off and eaten.” 

37. By Ninkharsag in the name of Enki a curse was uttered: 

38. “The face of life, when he dies, he shall never see [again].” 

39. The spirits of the earth in the dust sat down. 

40. The rebellious one to Enki said: 

41. “I, Ninkharsag, brought forth for thee people; what is my reward?” 

42. Enlil, the begetter, answered the rebellious one: 

43. “Thou, Ninkharsag, hast brought forth people; 

44, In my city I will make two thrones (?) and thy name shall be called on 
there. 

45. As a dignitary his head alone is exalted; 

46. His heart alone is changed; 

47. His eye alone is endowed with light.” 


314 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


The last three lines here refer to Takku, who would seem to be 
in some way a representative of humanity. Ninkharsag, jealous 
of her, has denied immortality to man. Enlil explains to her that 
she need not be jealous of her offspring as a whole; that none but 
Takku will be granted immortality. There is no reference, as 
Langdon once supposed, to the fall of man. 


Column VI (perhaps five lines are broken away) 


Oo ean eae the lord nhl. vac ya 

+ Se RABY ce the lord of life.......... 

ed Wt Presa ae they went:.......2. 

OFSU OS Rees they went, the lord of the gods.......... 
10. Spoke to him, the water of life.......... 


18, Ninkharsag. 2.35040 eee 

19). ol var hismeeay ame, they founded, 

20. Priests (?) they ordained, 

21. Fate they determined, 

22. With power established it. 

23. Ninkharsag in her temple granted his life to him: 

24. “My brother, what of thee is ill?” 

25. “My stable-cow is ill.” 

26. “The god Absham have I brought forth for thee.” 

27. “My brother, what of thee is ill?” 

28. “My flock is ill.” 

29. “The goddess ‘Queen of the herd’! have I brought forth for thee.” 
30. “My brother, what of thee is ill?” ‘My face is ill.” 

31. “The goddess Ninkautu have I brought forth for thee.” 

32. “My brother, what of thee is ill?” “My mouth is ill.” 

33. “The goddess ‘Queen who fills the mouth” have I brought forth for thee.” 
34. “My brother, what of thee is ill?” [My genitals are ill’”’}. 

35. “The goddess Nazi have I brought forth for thee.” 

36. “My brother, what of thee is ill?” “My hand [is ill.”] 

37. “My goddess ‘Living hand” have I brought forth for thee.” 

38. “My brother, what of thee is ill?” “My health is ill.” 

39. “The goddess ‘Queen of health’ have I brought forth for thee.” 
40. “My brother, what of thee is ill?” “My intelligence is ill.” 

41. “The god who makes the intelligence clear’ have I brought forth for thee.” 
42. “Grandly are they brought forth, they are created. 

43. Let Absham be lord of vegetation, 

44, Let Nintulla be lord of Magan, 


1In Sumerian the goddess Nintulla. 
2 In Sumerian the goddess Ninkasi. 
3 In Sumerian the goddess Dazima. 
4In Sumerian, Nintil. 

5In Sumerian, Enshagme. 


BEGINNING OF AGRICULTURE 315 


45. Let Ninkautu choose Ninazu as a spouse, 
46. May Ninkasi be the full heart’s possession, 
47, May Nazi become mistress of weaving (?), 
48. May Dazima the house of strong life take, 
49. May Nintil become mistress of the month, 
50. May Enshagme become lord of X. 

51. Glory!” 


2. Comparison with the Bible. 

Here the tablet concludes. This last column, which tells how 
the goddess Ninkharsag came to favor Takku and to create a 
number of divine helpers for her, has no parallel in the Biblical 
account. As Takku received the especial protection of Ninkharsag 
who created her for all these divine helpers, it seems certain that 
this tablet had no reference to the fall of man, as Langdon supposed. 
It appears rather to be a mythical account of the beginnings of 
agriculture and the medicinal use of plants in Babylonia. Ag- 
riculture implies irrigation. ‘From the first day whose month 
is first” to the ninth month, is the period when Babylonia is 
watered. The Tigris begins to rise in March, the first month, 
the overflow of the Euphrates does not subside till the sixth 
month, and the winter rains are at their height in the ninth 
month. 

As Adam was driven from Eden to eat of the fruits of the 
earth (Gen. 3:18, 24; compare Gen. 1 : 29), and Noah became a 
husbandman (Gen. 9 : 20), the story of Takku presents a remote 
similarity to both of them. Langdon! compares the list of divine 
beings with which the tablet ends with the antediluvian patriarchs 
of Gen. 4and 5, and suggests the possibility that here we have the 
original names of those patriarchs. Beyond the fact that Absham 
somewhat resembles the name Abel and was, like Abel, an agricul- 
turist, there is no apparent connection. The names in no way 
correspond. It is more probable that we have the names of those 
patriarchs in the list of kings translated in Chapter V. 


1See his Sumerian Epic of Paradise, the Flood, and the Fall of Man, p. 56. 


CHAPTER IX 


ABRAHAM AND ARCHAEOLOGY 


ABRAHAM HIRED AN Ox. ABRAHAM LEASED A FARM. ABRAHAM PAID His RENT. 
Wuo Was Tuts ABRAHAM? ‘TRAVEL BETWEEN BABYLONIA AND PALESTINE. HAMMU- 
RAPI, KING OF THE WESTLAND. Kupur-Masuc. Kincs SUPPOSED BY SOME TO BE 
THOSE OF GENESIS 14. 


ARCHZOLOGICAL investigation has brought to light a number of 
texts believed by scholars to illumine the Biblical accounts of Abra- 
ham. It is the purpose of this chapter to translate and discuss 
these. 

The documents which naturally attract us first are some con- 
tracts from Babylonia in which an Abraham was one of the con- 
tracting parties. They are as follows: 

1. Abraham Hired an Ox.! 


1. One ox broken to the yoke, 

2. an ox from Ibni-Sin, son of Sin-imgurani, 

3. from Ibni-Sin 

4. through the agency of Kishti-Nabium, 

5. son of Eteru, 

6. Abarama, son of Awel-Ishtar, 

7. for one month has hired. 

8. For one month 

9. one shekel of silver 

10. he will pay. 

11. Of it 4 shekel of silver 

12. from the hand of 

13. Abarama 

14. Kishti-Nabium 

15. has received. 

16. In the presence of Idin-Urash, son of Idin-Labibaal, 
17. in the presence of Awélé, son of Urri-bani, 

18. in the presence of Beliyatum, scribe. 

19. Month of the mission of Ishtar (7. e., Ulul), day 20th, 
20. The year Ammizadugga, the king (built) 

21. the wall of Ammizadugga, (7. e., Ammizadugga’s 11th year). 
22. Tablet of Kishti-Nabium. 


This tablet shows how Abarama (Abraham), a farmer, hired an 
oxforamonth. The tablet, as the last line shows, is the copy made 


1 Translated from Vorderasiatische Schriftdenkmdler der kéniglichen Museen zu Berlin, VU, 
No. 92. 
316 


ABRAHAM AND ARCHAOLOGY 317 


for Kishti-Nabium, the agent. In such business transactions three 
copies were often made, one for each of the contracting parties and 
one for the scribe. The date of this tablet is 1965 8B. c. Ammiza- 
dugga was the tenth king of that first dynasty of Babylon, of which 
Hammurapi was the sixth. 

2. Abraham Leased a Farm.! 


. To the patrician 

speak, 

saying, Gimil-Marduk (wishes that) 

. Shamash and Marduk may give thee health! 
Mayest thou have peace, mayest thou have health! 
' ey the god who protects thee thy head in luck 

. hold! 

. (To enquire) concerning thy health I am sending. 

. May thy welfare before Shamash and Marduk 

10. be eternal! 

11. Concerning the 400 shars of land, the field of Sin-idinam, 
12. which to Abamrama 

13. to lease, thou hast sent; 

14. the land-steward (?) and scribe 

15. appeared and 

16. on behalf of Sin-idinam 

17. I took that up. 

18. The 400 shars of land to Abamrama 

19. as thou hast directed 

20. I have leased. 

21. Concerning thy dispatches I shall not be negligent. 


It appears from this document that Abamrama, who is none other 
than a Babylonian Abraham, was a small farmer, who leased a small 
tract of land. 

3. Abraham Paid His Rent.? 


. 1 shekel of silver 

. of the rent (?) of his field, 

. for the year Ammizadugga, the king, 
a lordly, splendid statue (set up), 

. brought 

. Abamrama, 

received 

. Sin-idinam 

. and Iddatum. 

. Month Siman, 28th day, 

. The year Ammizadugga, the king, 

. a lordly, splendid statue (set up). 
(This was Ammizadugga’s 13th year.) 


e 


— 
DOONAU PW 


ped pod 
N= 


1 Vorderasiatische Schriftdenkmdaler der kiniglichen Museen 2u Berlin, VII, No. 198, 
4 Jbid., VII, No. 97. 


318 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


This document, dated two years after that in which the ox was 
hired, shows how Abamrama (Abraham) paid a part of his rent. 

The name Abamrama (Abraham) occurs in two other documents 
published in the same volume (no. 101, and no. 102), where, in 
defining the boundaries of other fields of Sin-idinam, they are said 
to be bounded on one side by the field of Abamrama. As these 
documents mention the name of Abamrama only incidentally, they 
are not translated here. 

4. Who Was This Abraham? 

These documents, which relate to the business of a Babylonian 
Abraham, come from Dilbat, about eight miles south of Borsippa, 
which was just across the Euphrates from Babylon. It is clear 
that this Abraham was a small farmer, who hired a tract of land 
from a larger land-owner. He also hired an ox wherewith to work 
his land, and paid the rent of the land and the hire of the ox asa 
good citizen should. This Abraham was not the Biblical patriarch. 
The patriarch’s father was Terah and his brother Nahor; the father 
of this Babylonian Abraham was Awel-Ishtar, and his brother Idda- 
tum (ibid., no. 101, 9). The Abraham of the Bible was a monotheist 
according to Genesis; the ancestors of the Babylonian Abraham 
worshiped the goddess Ishtar, who corresponded to the Canaanitish 
Ashtoreth. The Bible connects the patriarch with Ur and Haran; 
this Abraham lived about half-way between these two cities. 

Up to the present time this Babylonian Abraham is the only per- 
son known to us other than the Biblical patriarch, who, in that pe- 
riod of history, bore the name. He is the only one known to us out- 
side the Biblical record! The only other occurrence of the name 
outside the Bible is in the name of a place in Palestine, probably 
near Hebron, which Sheshonk I, the Biblical Shishak, calls “The 
Field of Abram.’ As Shishak lived much later (945-924 B. c.), 
being a contemporary of Rehoboam the son of Solomon, this 
Egyptian place name is not so significant. The Babylonian Abra- 
ham mentioned in the documents just translated is welcome proof 
that Abraham was a personal name in Babylonia near the time in 
which the Bible places the patriarch. With these documents Gen. 
11 : 27—25 : 10 should be compared. 

Another Babylonian contract is of interest in connection with the 


migration of Abraham. 
1 Since this manuscript was sent to the printer, another Abraham has been found in some 


tablets in the Yale University Collection. 
2 Breasted, Ancient Records, Egypt, IV, pp. 352, 353. (See p. 360.) 


ABRAHAM AND ARCHAOLOGY 319 


on 


. Travel between Babylonia and Palestine. 


. A wagon! 

from Mannum-balum-Shamash, 

. son of Shelibia, 

Khabilkinum, 

. son of Appani[bi], 

. on a lease 

. for 1 year 

. has hired. 

. As a yearly rental 

10. % of a shekel of silver 

11. he will pay. 

12. As the first of the rent 

13. 3 of a shekel of silver 

14. he has received. 

15. Unto the land of Kittim 

16. he shall not drive it. 

17. In the presence of Ibku-Adad, 
18. son of Abiatum; 

19. in the presence of Ilukasha, 

20. son of Arad-ilishu; 

21. in the presence of Ilishu.......... 
22. Month Ululu, day 25, 

23. the year the king Erech from the flood 
24. of the river as a friend protected. 


WOMAN Pw 


The date of the above interesting document has not been identi- 
fied with certainty. It is thought by some to belong to the reign of 
Shamsu-iluna, the successor of Hammurapi. The writing clearly 
shows that at any rate it comes from the period of this dynasty. 
That is, it comes from the period to which Gen. 14 assigns the 
migration of Abraham. Kittim in the contract is the word used in 
the Hebrew of Jer. 2 : 10 and Ezek. 27 : 6 for the coast lands of the 
Mediterranean. It undoubtedly has that meaning here. This 
contract was written in Sippar, the Agade of earlier times, a town 
on the Euphrates a little to the north of Babylon. It reveals the 
fact that at the time the document was written there was so much 
travel between Babylonia and the Mediterranean coast that a man 
could not lease a wagon for a year without danger that it might be 
driven over the long route to Syria or Palestine. Against such wear 
upon his vehicle the particular wagon-owner of our document pro- 
tected himself. 

When, therefore, Abraham went out from his land and his kindred, 
he was going to no unknown land. The tide of commerce and of 
emigration had opened the way. Apparently it was no more re- 

1See Beitrdge eur Assyriologie, V, p. 498, no. 23; cf. p. 429, ff. 


320 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


markable for him to do it than for an Irishman to come to America 
half a century ago, or for a south European to come today. 

6. Hammurapi, King of the Westland. 

It is thought by many scholars that Hammurapi was the 
Amraphel of Genesis 14. The following inscription’ relates to this 
king: | 


. To [Shar]ratum, 

. the bride of Anu 

who has come to lordship, 

. lady of strength and abundance, 

of the mountain-temple, 

. faithful lady, of exalted counsel, 

. lady who binds the heart, 

. who for her spouse 

. makes favorable her open oracle; 

10. to his lady, 

11. for the life of Hammurapi, 

12. king of the Westland (MAR-TU), 

1S Tbirnmi tio 

14. governor of the river-[district].......... 
15. son of Shubans.5..ku sens ; 

16. a guardian-deity appropriate to her divinity, 
17. in the land which she loves, 

18. for her service (?) 

19. before her beloved temple has set up. 


This inscription is quoted here for two reasons: 1. It was erected 
“for the life of Hammurapi,” who is supposed by many to be the 
Amraphel of Gen. 14:1. Amraphel is supposed to be a corruption 
of Hammurapi, thus Amrapi. The final / of Amraphel is a diffi- 
culty. While many Assyriologists, from Schrader onward, have 
recognized the equivalence, it is now seriously questioned by Jensen 
and Eduard Meyer, and absolutely rejected by Bezold. It must 
be said that, if Amraphel is intended for Hammurapi, the name had 
undergone corruption before it was placed in the Biblical record. 
2. In this inscription Hammurapi is called “king of MAR-TU,” or 
the Westland, a name by which the Babylonians often designated 
Syria and Palestine. MAR-TU simply means “sunset,” but was 
used like the Arabic magrib as the designation of a region. There 
is no reason to doubt that here it designates Syria and Palestine, 

1King, Letters and Inscriptions of Hammurabi, Vol. I, No. 66. 

2 Some scholars suppose that the writer of the account in Genesis had before him a source in the 
cuneiform writing in which the “pi” at the end of Hammurapi’s name was spelled with a sign that 
could be read either “pi” or “pil” (see Barton, Origin and Development of Babylonian Writing, 


Leipzig, 1913, No. 185), and that the / was attached in consequence of a misreading of this sign. 
That, however, admits corruption, though it attempts to explain its cause. 


ABRAHAM AND ARCHAKOLOGY 321 


so that, if Amraphel is Hammurapi, this is confirmatory of his con- 
nection with the West. 
7. Kudur-Mabug. 
The following inscription! has also often been brought into the 
discussion of Genesis 14: 
1. To Nannar, 
2. his king, 
3. Kudur-Mabug, 
4. “Father” of the Westland (MAR-TU), 
5. son of Simti-shilkhak, 
6. when Nannar 
7. his prayer 
8. had heard, 
9. Enunmakh, 
10. belonging to Nannar, 
11. for his life 
12. and the life 
13. of Arad-Sin, his son, 
14. king of Larsa, 
15. he built. 


This inscription has often been brought into connection with 
Abraham, partly because some have seen in Kudur-Mabug the 
Chedorlaomer of Gen. 14 : 1, and partly because Kudur-Mabug in 
it calls himself “Father” or governor of the Westland. If, however, 
Kudur-Mabug was intended by the name Chedorlaomer, the name 
had been corrupted beyond all recognition in the Biblical tradition 
before Gen. 14 was written. In reality there is no reason to suppose 
that Kudur-Mabug and Chedorlaomer are the same. As to the 
term “Westland,” it probably does not here designate Palestine, but 
either the western part of Elam or the southern part of Babylonia. 
Babylonia lay to the west of Elam, and Kudur-Mabug placed on the 
throne of Larsa, a city of South Babylonia, first his son, Arad-Sin, 
and then his son, Rim-Sin, and apparently maintained an over-lord- 
ship over both of them. “Westland” accordingly means in his in- 
scription, not Palestine, but Babylonia. One of Kudur-Mabug’s 
sons calls his father “Father’’ (or governor) of Emutbal, a region of 
Elam. It is a mistake, therefore, to bring Kudur-Mabug into con- 
nection with Abraham and Gen. 14.? 


1 Cuneiform Texts, &c., in the British Museum, XXI, 33. 

2 It was until recently not known that Arad-Sin and Rim-Sin were different persons, and some 
thought the king might be called either Rim-Sin or Eri-aku (Arioch, Gen. 14:1). It is possible 
that Arad-Sin may have been called Ari-aku in Sumerian, but it is improbable. It is now known 
that Arad-Sin died 30 years before Hammurapi came to the throne. With our present knowledge 
it is difficult to see how Arioch could be the name of Rim-Sin unless Rim-Sin be read partly as 
Semitic and partly as Sumerian and then considerably corrupted. 


322 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


8. Kings Supposed by Some to be Those Mentioned in Gen. 14. 

Some fragmentary tablets from the Persian period, not earlier 
than the fourth century B. c., contain references which have been 
brought by some scholars into connection with Abraham and the 
fourteenth of Genesis. The texts read as follows: 


ie 
fae ice ee ae ee. 
DEN ee ae Rot ana nate Ri sa 
oye Cao Stee wi enter his work not... .. 5.50 
EE Sg pe Ee cia SU-hA-AM-MU. oo eevee 
Sets Ay cee aay ae beforé the gods the creation of.......... 
Pits ae a tia day Uy wenk ee hamash, who illumines.......... 
fe CNMUE ery Gs. the lord of the gods, Marduk, in the satisfaction of his heart, 
SSas ae ets his servant, the region, all of it, a counsel not fulfilled, 
Cae Ser by force of arms he overthrew. Dursirilani, son of Arad- 
Malaku (Eri?-. .aku) 
tO Seer ee goods (?) he carried off, took as spoil, waters over Babylon 
and Esagil 
1 ete: his with the weapon of his hand like a lamb he killed him, 
| YA rete eed spoke to her, father, and son; with the weapon 
13. [Great] and small he cut off, Tudkhula, son of (sagza Woe ss 
RES ba goods he took as spoil, waters over Babylon and Esagil 
£5 ig 2 Ee his son with the weapon of his hands upon him fell. 
ROA eae Nong of his dominion before the temple of Annunit.......... 
Lives Elam, the city Akhkhi to (?) the city Rabbatu he spoiled. 
ISSR like a deluge, he made the cities of Akkad, all of Borsippa (?) 
1 ma ended. Kukukumal,? his son pierced his heart with a girdle- 
dagger of iron. 
1H ees CR Enea the enemy took and the destruction of these kings, participators 
in wrong (?), 
Pikes Ue ees bondage for which the king of the gods, Marduk, was angry 
with them 
DP URS Ot aes hs with sickness their breast was oppressed........ 
25 FCS unto ruins were reduced (?). All of them to the king, our lord 
py Eas knowing (?) the hearts of the gods, the gracious Marduk, for the 
commemoration of his name 
BS As aries oes and named Esagil—to his place may he return. 
FSWT ee fee gee ech pare may he make. This, O king, my lord we...... 
2A AB acted his evil his heart the gods, his fathers.........-. 
PA Fae iy ie Me a participator in sin shall not be (?). 
II 
1. ee eee gotls:(?}: ose 
Do ere eae in the city feared day (?) [and night (?)] 
Oe a eee Larsa (?), the bond of heaven which unto the four winds... 


1 The text was published by Pinches in the Journal of Transactions of the Victoria Institute, 
Vol. XXIX, 82, 83; cf. emendations by L. W. King, Letters and Inscriptions of Hammurabi, 
Vol. I, p. li, ff. Sayce has also translated them, filling out the lacune by freely exercising the 
imagination, in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology, XXVIII, 203-218, 241-251, 
and X XIX, 7-17. 

2 This could be read Kudurkumal. 


ABRAHAM AND ARCHASOLOGY 323 


. he decreed them the park (?) which is in Babylon, the city of [his] 
majesty (?); 

. he decreed them the possessions of Babylon, small and great. 

- In their faithful counsel unto Kukukumal, King of Elam, 


22. has been proclaimed lord of Babylon; the work of........ shall not 
endure. 

23. In the month Siman and the month Tammuz in Babylon there was 
GORE HPA os. . 


24, the work of the son of the magician. The bull (7. e., warrior) who de- 
vastates the land.....:.... 


Two other similar fragmentary texts belonging to the series are 
published as noted above, but it is unnecessary to quote them here. 
The two fragments which we have translated contain the most 
important references, and are sufficient to enable the reader to 
make up his mind as to the bearing of these texts upon the four- 
teenth of Genesis. 

Pinches and Sayce read the name of the Elamite king, Kukukumal, 
Kudurlakhmal, and identify it with Chedorlaomer. Pinches so 
reads it, hesitatingly; Sayce, confidently. There is no reason for so 
reading it, except the desire to discover Chedorlaomer. The first 
three syllables are represented in the cuneiform by the same sign— 
a sign the most frequent value of which is ku. It does sometimes 
have the value dur, but never lakh. King reads it Kukukumal, 
and there is really no reason for reading it otherwise. 

Another name which occurs twice is written in the two places with 
a slight difference of spelling. It is according to the most natural 
reading of the signs, Arad-Malkua, or Arad-Malaku. Sayce and 
Pinches read Eri-eaku and identified him with “Arioch, king of 
Elassar,” (Gen. 14:1). While this is a possible reading, it is only 


324 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


secured by giving to the signs their Sumerian, instead of their 
Semitic values, and, as the documents are in Semitic, this is prob- 
ably wrong. The name is to be read Arad-Malkua. Another name, 
Tudkhula, which occurs in the first document, has been identified by 
the same scholars with “Tidal, king of the nations” (Gen. 14:1), 
but in this text there is no evidence that Tudkhula was a king at all, 
and the identification is purely fanciful. It should be noted also 
that Arad-Malkua, the supposed Eri-eaku, does not himself take 
any part in the wars here recorded; it is his son, Dursil-ilani, who 
is represented as a contemporary of Kukukumal, the supposed 
Chedorlaomer. 

It should be further noted that these documents represent a 
complete conquest of Babylon by Elam—a conquest in which 
Babylon itself is laid desolate. It is not certain just what part 
Dursil-ilAni played in the story. He may have been a vassal king 
under Kukukumal, or the Babylonian upon whom the hopes of the 
people centered, to free them from the yoke of Elam. It is clear, 
however, that the events mentioned in these documents are not in 
harmony with the supposition that these monarchs acted as allies of 
Hammurapi in the invasion of Palestine. Hammurapi is excluded 
from the account. Kukukumal conquered and desolated the very 
city in which Hammurapi had his throne. Kukukumal must, ac- 
cordingly, have lived at some other period of the history, and the 
supposed confirmation of the account of the fourteenth chapter 
of Genesis has not yet been found. 

As already stated, these tablets are not earlier than the fourth 
century B. c. The events which they record were probably much 
later than the time of Abraham. Babylon is called by its Cassite 
name, Kar-duniash, a name which it did not bear until some hun- 
dreds of years after the time of Hammurapi. Many times in the 
course of Babylonian history was the country overrun by Elam, 
and there is no real reason to suppose that the war here referred to 
belongs to the age of Hammurapi. 


CHAPTER X 


JACOB AND JOSEPH 


Ss, 

THE NAmeEs JAcos, ISRAEL, AND JOSEPH IN BABYLONIAN AND EGYPTIAN RECORDS. 
“THE TALE OF THE Two BROTHERS”; ITs BEARING ON THE STORY OF JOSEPH IN 
GENESIS. LETTERS TO A RULER LIKE JosEPH. THE SEVEN YEARS OF FAMINE. 
INSCRIPTION SHOWING PREPARATION FOR FAMINE. 


1. Jacob. 

Three different men in Babylonia at the time of the Hammu- 
rapi dynasty bore the name Jacob-el. Thus, in the reign of 
Apil-Sin, the fourth king of the dynasty (2161 to 2144 3B. c.), two 
witnesses, Shubna-ilu and Yadakh-ilu gave their father’s name as 
Yakub-ilu, or Jacob-el.! In the same reign a witness to another 
document, one Lamaz, had a Jacob-el as his father.?. In the reign 
of Sin-muballit, the next king, a witness named Nur-Shamash was 
also the son of a Jacob-el.? In the reign of the great Hammurapi, 
the next king, a witness named Sin-erbiam gave his father’s name 
simply as Vakub,* or Jacob. “This last is clearly a shortening of 
Jacob-el. These men all lived from 75 to 190 years before the Baby- 
lonian Abraham, whose documents are discussed in Chapter IX. 

In connection with these names it should’be noted that Thothmes 
III of Egypt, who made extensive conquests in Asia between 1478 
and 1446 B. c., records the name of a city which he captured in 
Palestine as Ya-‘-k-b’-ra, the Egyptian equivalent of Jacob-el.6 It 
_ does not seem a rash guess to suppose that in the period when inter- 
course between Babylonia and Palestine was frequent and immi- 
gration from the former country to the latter was in progress, some 
Babylonian bearing this name migrated to Palestine, settled there 
and that a city was named after him. Many parallels to this may 
be found in the names of places in the United States and Canada. 
That this place name in Canaan had some connection with the 
name of the Patriarch Jacob is probable, though just what that 
connection was it is impossible in the present state of our knowledge 
to say. 


1 Cuneiform Texts, &c., in British Museum, IV, 33, 22b. 

2 Meissner, Altbabylonisches Privatrecht, 36, 25. 

3 Cuneiform Texts, VIII, 25, 22. 

4 Ibid., II, 9, 26. 

5 Cf. Mittheilungen der Vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft, 1907, p. 27. 
325 


326 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


2. Israel. 

Shortly before the war a Babylonian seal cylinder was purchased 
of a peasant in a village near Mosul and taken to Paris.! It bears 
the name, Israel, son of Rishzuni. (See Fig. 302.) The form of the 
written characters, as well as the pictures carved on the seal, mark 
it as the work of the time of the dynasty of Agade, which ruled 
Babylonia from about 2800 to 2600 B. c. The horns of the bull 
with which the hero at the left is fighting are identical in appear- 
ance with the horns of the bulls on the seal of Shargalisharri, one 
of the kings of this dynasty. There can be no doubt that the object 
belongs to this time, as this type of creature became extinct and is 
not pictured in subsequent art. 

It is a matter of almost thrilling interest to the student of the 
Bible to find the name Israel borne by a man who lived before 2600 
B.C. Before this discovery the only occurrence of the name Israel 
outside the Bible was in the inscription of Merneptah, king of 
Egypt, where it designated the nation Israel or a part of it. On 
this seal it is a personal name. Its form is Amorite. 

3. Joseph. 

A Babylonian business document of the time of the first dynasty 
of Babylon has among its witnesses a man named Yashub-ilu, or 
Joseph-el.? 

‘In the list of places which Thothmes III of Egypt conquered in 
Palestine there is one Ya-sha-p’-ra, which many scholars have 
taken to be Joseph-el, though Prof. W. Max Miiller® thinks it 
rather is equivalent to Yesheb-el, meaning ‘“‘where God dwells.” In 
view of the clear Babylonian equivalence, however, it seems prob- 
able that it is Joseph-el. If so, it probably became a place-name in 
Palestine because some important Babylonian who bore the name 
settled there, just as we have supposed Jacob-el did. Some scholars 
hold that it is connected with the name of the Patriarch Joseph in 
some way, but what that connection was, we cannot now say. 

4. The Tale of the Two Brothers.‘ 


Once there were two brethren, of one mother and one father; Anpu was the 
name of the elder, and Bata was the name of the younger. Now, as for Anpu, he 
had a house, and he had a wife. But his little brother was to him, as it were, a 
son; he it was who made for him his clothes; he it was who followed behind his 


1 Published by Scheil in the Revue d’assyriologie, Vol. XIII, pp. 5 ff. 

2 Cuneiform Texts, &c., in the British Museum, II, 23, 15. 

3 Mittheilungen der vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft, 1907, p. 23. 

4Taken from Griffith’s translation in Petrie’s Egyptian Tales, second series, London, 1895, 
pp. 36 ff. 


JACOB AND JOSEPH 327 


oxen to the fields; he it was who did the plowing; he it was who harvested the 
corn; he it was who did for him all the matters which were in the field. Behold 
his younger brother grew to be an excellent worker; there was not his equal in 
the whole land; behold the spirit of a god was in him. 

Now after this the younger brother followed his oxen in the daily manner; and 
every evening he turned again to the house, laden with all the herbs of the field, 
with milk and with wood, and with all things of the field. And he put them down 
before his elder brother who was sitting with his wife; and he drank and ate, and 
he lay down in his stable with the cattle. And at the dawn of day he took bread 
which he had baked, and laid it before his elder brother; and he took with him 
his bread to the field, and he drave his cattle to pasture in the fields. And ashe 
walked behind his cattle, they said to him, ‘Good is the herbage which is in that 
place”; and he listened to all that they said, and he took them to the good place 
which they desired. And the cattle which were before him were exceeding 
excellent, and they multiplied greatly. 

Now at the time of plowing his elder brother said unto him, “Let us make 
ready for ourselves a goodly yoke of oxen for plowing, for the land has come out 
from the water; it is fit for plowing. Moreover, do thou come to the field with 
corn, for we will begin the plowing in the morrow morning.”” Thus said he to 
him; and his younger brother did all things as his elder brother had spoken unto 
him to do them. 

And when the morn was come, they went to the fields with their things; and 
their hearts were pleased exceedingly with their task in the beginning of their 
work. And it came to pass after this that as they were in the field they stopped 
for corn, and he sent his younger brother, saying, ‘Haste thou, bring to us corn 
from the farm.” And the younger brother found the wife of his elder brother, as 
she was sitting tiring her hair. He said to her, ‘‘Get up, and give to me corn, 
that I may run to the field, for my elder brother hastened me; do not delay.” 
She said to him, “‘Go open the bin, and thou shalt take to thyself according to thy 
will, that I may not drop my locks of hair while I dress them.” 

The youth went to the stable; he took a large measure, for he desired to take 
much corn; he loaded it with wheat and barley; and he went out carrying it. 
She said to him, ‘How much of the corn that is wanted, is that which is on thy 
shoulder?”’ He said to her, ‘“Three bushels of barley, and two of wheat, in all 
five; these are what are upon my shoulder:”’ thus said he to her. And she con- 
versed with him, saying, ‘“There is great strength in thee, for I see thy might 
every day.” And her heart knew him with the knowledge of youth. And she 
arose and came to him, and conversed with him, saying, “Come stay with me, 
and it shall be well for thee, and I will make for thee beautiful garments.” Then 
the youth became like a panther of the south with fury at the evil speech which 
she had made to him; and she feared greatly. And he spake unto her, saying, 
“Behold thou art to me as a mother, thy husband is to me as a father, for he 
who is elder thanI brought me up. What is this wickedness that thou hast said 
tome? Say itnot tomeagain. For I will not tell it to any man, for I will not 
let it be uttered by the mouth of any man.” He lifted up his burden, and he 
went to the field and came to his elder brother; and they took up their work, to 
labor at their task. 

Now afterward, at eventime, his elder brother was returning to his house; 
and the younger brother was following after his oxen, and he loaded himself with 
all the things of the field; and he brought his oxen before him, to make them lie 
down in their stable which was in the farm. And behold the wife of the elder 
brother was afraid for the words which she had said. She took a parcel of fat, 
she became like one who is evilly beaten, desiring to say to her husband, “It is 
thy younger brother who has done this wrong.” Her husband returned in the 


328 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


even as was his wont of every day: he came unto his house; he found his wife ill 
of violence; she did not give him water upon his hands as he used to have, she 
did not make a light before him, his house was in darkness, and she was lying 
very sick. Her husband said to her, ‘Who has spoken with thee?” Behold she 
said, “No one has spoken with me except thy younger brother. When he came 
to take for thee corn he found me sitting alone; he said to me, ‘Come, let us stay 
together, tie up thy hair’: thus spoke he tome. I did not listen to him, but thus 
spake I to him: ‘Behold, am I not thy mother, is not thy elder brother to thee as 
afather?’? And he feared, and he beat me to stop me from making report to thee, 
and if thou lettest him live I shall die. Now behold he is coming in the evening; 
pe I complain of these wicked words, for he would have done this even in day- 
ight.” 

vee the elder brother became as a panther of the south; he sharpened his 
knife; he took it in his hand; he stood behind the door of the stable to slay his 
younger brother as he came in the evening to bring his cattle into the stable. 

Now the sun went down, and he loaded himself with herbs in his daily manner. 
He came, and his foremost cow entered the stable, and she said to her keeper, 
“Behold thy elder brother standing before thee with his knife to slay thee; 
flee from before him.” He heard what his first cow had said; and the next en- 
tering, she also said likewise. He looked beneath the door of the stable; he saw 
the feet of his elder brother; he was standing behind the door, and his knife was 
in his hand. He cast down his load to the ground, and betook himself to flee 
swiftly; and his elder brother pursued after him with his knife. Then the 
younger brother cried out unto Ra Harakhti,! saying, ‘“My good lord! thou art 
he who divides the evil from the good.” And Ra stood and heard his cry; and 
Ra made a wide water between him and his elder brother, and it was full of 
crocodiles; and the one brother was on one bank, and the other on the other 
bank; and the elder brother smote twice on his hands at not slaying him. Thus 
did he. And the younger brother called to the elder brother on the bank, saying, 
“Stand still until the dawn of the day; and when Ra ariseth, I shall judge with 
thee before him, and he discerneth between the good and the evil. For I shall 
not be with thee any more forever; I shall not be in the place in which thou art; 
I shall go to the valley of the acacia.” 


We need not follow the story further. ‘Those who wish to do so 
are referred to Petrie’s Egyptian Tales. From this point onward, 
it contains many mythological features. 

This story, in the form in which we have it, was written for Seti II 
(1209-1205 B. c.) of the nineteenth Egyptian dynasty, while that 
monarch was still crown prince. Scholars of all shades of opinion 
have recognized in it a striking parallel to the story of Joseph in the 
house of Potiphar, in Genesis 39 : 1-20. Joseph, like the younger 
brother of this tale, was trusted with everything about his master’s 
place; Potiphar’s wife, like the sister-in-law of the tale, tempted 
Joseph; Joseph, like the younger brother, resisted temptation; and 
Potiphar’s wife, like the sister-in-law, charged him with the crime 
which he had been unwilling to commit. 


1 The sun-god. 


JACOB AND JOSEPH 329 


Scholars of the critical school regard this as the original of the 
story in Genesis. While they recognize that it is a theme which is 
not confined to Egyptians and Hebrews (compare for other paral- 
lels Lang, Myth, Ritual, and Religion, II, 303, ff.), the fact that the 
theme of the Biblical story is laid in Reype leads them to think it 
extremely probable that there is a connection between the two. 

Conservative scholars on the other hand hold that in all probabil- 
ity there was more than one such scandal in Egypt, and account for 
the likeness by the similarity which would naturally present itself 
in such cases, holding that the Egyptian tale has no bearing on the 
credibility of that in Genesis. 

5. Letters to a Ruler Like Joseph. 

Among the letters in the Babylonian language and script found 
at El-Amarna in Egypt in the winter of 1887—1888,! many of which 
were written to Amenophis III and Amenophis IV, Kings of Egypt, 
1411-1357 8. c., by Egyptian vassals in Palestine and Syria, there 
are two which were written to a Semite named Diidu (David), 
which show that this Semite held at the Egyptian court a position 
analogous to that which Joseph, as ruler of Egypt, is said to have 
held (Gen. 41 : 39, f.;50:26). These letters are as follows: 


r 
To Didu, my lord, my father, 
. speaks Aziru, thy son, thy servant: 
at the feet of my father I fall. 
Unto my father may there be health! 
O Didu, truly I have given (7. e., done) 
. the wish of the king, my lord, 
. and whatever is the wish 
. of the king, my lord, let him send 
. and I will give (do) it. 
10. Further: see, thou art there, 
11. my father, and whatever is the wish 
12. of Dadu, my father, send it 
13. and I will indeed give (do) it. 
14. Behold, thou art my father and my lord 
15. andI amthy son. The lands of the Amorites 
16. are thy lands, and my house is thy house, 
17. and whatever thy wish is, 
18, send, and I 
19. shall behold, and verily will give (do) it. 
20. And see, thou in the presence of 
21. the king, my lord, sittest. 
co a enemies 


1 Cf. Part I, p. 36. 
2 Winckler und Abel, Thontafelnfund von El-Amarna, No. 40. Cf. Knudtzon, Die El-Amarna 


Tafeln, No. 158. 


WOMIAU PWN 


ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


. words of slander 

. before my father, before 

. the king, my lord, have spoken, 

. but do thou not count them just! 

. And behold thou in the presence 

. of the king, my lord, as a dignitary (?) 
 aittesty (Cel. tee en nes 

. and the words of slander 

. against me do not count true. 

. Also I am a servant of the king, my lord, 
. and from the words of the king, my lord, 
. and from the words of Ddidu, my father, 
. I shall not depart forever. 

. But when the king, my lord, does not love me, 
. but hates me, 

. then I—what shall I say? 


1G 


. To Dfdu, my lord, my father, 
. speaks Aziru, thy servant: 
. at the feet of my lord I fall. 


Khatib has come 
and has brought the words 


. of the king, my lord, important and good, 


and I am very, very glad, 
and my land and my brethren, 


. the servants of the king, my lord, 

. and the servants of Diidu, my lord, 

. are very, very glad, 

. when there comes 

. the breath of the king, my lord, 

. unto me. From the words 

. of my lord, my god, my sun-god, 

. and from the words of Dddu, 

. my lord, I shall not depart. 

. My lord, truly Khatib 

. stands with me. 

. Land he will come. 

. My lord, the king of the Hittites 

. has come into Nukhashshi, 

. so that I cannot come. 

. Would that the king of the Hittites would depart! 
. Then truly I would come, 

. I and Khatib. 

. May the king, my lord, my words 

. hear! My lord, I fear 

. on account of the face of the king, my lord, 
. and on account of the face of Dfdu. 

. And now by my gods 

. and my angels verily I have sworn, 

. O Didu and nobles 

. of the king, my lord, that truly I will come. 
. And so, Didu 


1 Winckler und Abel, Thontafelnfund von El-Amarna, No. 38. See also Knudtzon, Die El- 


Amarna Tafeln, No. 164. 


JACOB AND JOSEPH 331 


36. and the king, my lord, and the nobles, 

37. “Truly we will not conceive anything 

38. against Aziru that is unfavorable,”— 

39. even thus may ye swear 

40. by my gods and the god A! 

41. And truly I 

42. and Khatib are faithful servants of the king. 
43. O Didu, thou shalt truly know 

44. that I will come to thee. 


The Aziru of these letters was the chieftain or petty king of the 
Amorites, who were living at the time to the eastward of Pheenicia, 
between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon mountains. The way 
in which he addresses Didu is significant. Didu is classed con- 
tinually with the king. Aziru fears to offend Dtidu as he fears to 
offend the king; the words of Dadu are of equal importance with 
those of the king. Déidu clearly occupied a position of power with 
the king of Egypt similar to that ascribed to Joseph in Genesis 41. 
Moreover, Ditidu is a Semitic name; vocalized a little differently, it 
becomes David. 

The king to whom this letter was written was Amenophis III or 
Amenophis IV, in whose reigns Semitic influence was especially 
strong in Egypt. Amenophis III took as his favorite wife a woman 
named Tiy, daughter of Yuaa and Tuau, whose mummies, discov- 
ered a few years ago, show, some think, that they were Semitic. 
Queen Tiy was very influential during the reign of her son, Amen- 
ophis IV, and was in part the cause of the remarkable religious 
reform which he undertook (Part I, Chapter I, § 6 (vii)). It is not, 
accordingly, strange to find that the chief minister of one of these 
kings was a Semite. Of course, Diidu cannot be identified with 
Joseph, but his career shows that such careers as that of Joseph 
were not impossible at this period of Egyptian history. 

6. The Seven Years of Famine. 

The following inscription was found cut on a rock between the 
island of Elephantine and the First Cataract, and was first pub- 
lished by Brugsch in 1891. It is written in hieroglyphic characters, 
and was apparently inscribed in the reign of Ptolemy X, 117-89 
B.c. It relates how King Zoser, of the third dynasty, who began 
to reign about 2980 B. c., nearly 2,800 years before the inscription 
was written, appealed to Khnum, the god of Elephantine,. because 
of a famine. The part of the text which interests us is as follows:! 


1 Translated from the German rendering of Ranke in Gressmann’s Altorientalische Texte und 
Bilder zum Alten Testament, Tiibingen, 1909, p. 223. 


332 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


“T am very anxious on account of those who are in the palace. My heart is in 
great anxiety on account of misfortune, for in my time the Nile has not over- 
flowed for a period of seven years. There is scarcely any produce of the field; 
herbage fails; eatables are wanting. Every man robs his neighbor. Men 
move (?) with nowhere to go. The children cry, the young people creep along 
(?). The aged heart is bowed down; their limbs are crippled; they sit (?) on the 
earth. . Pheir arms ave... 20s The people of the court are at their wits’ end. 
The store-houses (?) were built, but.......... and all that was in them has 
been consumed.” 


As Brugsch! saw, this inscription gives a graphic account of the 
suffering caused by seven such years of famine as are said to have 
occurred in the time of Joseph (Gen. 41 : 30, 54,ff.). It cannot be 
the same seven-year famine as that referred to in Genesis, as it is 
placed several centuries too early to coincide with the time of 
Joseph. As the inscription is about 2,800 years later than the 
event it describes, its historical accuracy might be questioned, but 
it is probable that it was a renewal of an earlier inscription. But 
even if its historical accuracy be impugned, it witnesses to a native 
Egyptian tradition that such famines were possible. 


7, Inscription Showing Preparation for Famine. 


Inscription of Baba of El-Kab?2 


“The chief at the table of the sovereign, Baba, the risen again, speaks thus: 
I loved my father; I honored my mother; my brothers and sisters loved me. I 
went out of the door of my house with a benevolent heart; I stood there with 
refreshing hand; splendid were my preparations of what I collected for the festal 
day. Mild was (my) heart, free from violent anger. The gods bestowed upon 
me abundant prosperity upon earth. The city wished me health and a life of 
full enjoyment. I punished the evil-doers. The children who stood before me 
in the town during the days which I fulfilled were—great and small—60; just 
as many beds were provided for them, just as many chairs (?), just as many 
tables (?). They all consumed 120 ephahs of durra, the milk of 3 cows, 52 goats, 
and 9 she-asses, a hin of balsam, and 2 jars of oil. 

“My words may seem a jest to the gainsayer, but I call the god Mut to witness 
that what I say is true. I had all this prepared in my house; in addition I put 
cream in the store-chamber and beer in the cellar in a more than sufficient num- 
ber of hin-measures. 

“T collected corn as a friend of the harvest-god. I was watchful in time of 
sowing. And when a famine arose, lasting many years, I distributed corn to the 
city each year of famine.” 


The Baba who wrote this inscription lived under the eighteenth 
Egyptian dynasty, about 1500 B. c., or a little before. Brugsch 
pointed out many years ago that Baba’s concluding statement forms 


1 See his Sieben Jahre der Hungersnot, 1891. 
2 From Brugsch’s Egypt under the Pharaohs, London, 1881, I, 303 fi. 


JACOB AND JOSEPH 333 


an interesting parallel to the conduct of Joseph as told in Gen. 
41: 47-5/. Baba claims to have done for his city, El-Kab, what 
Joseph is said to have done for all Egypt. His statement affords 
striking evidence of the historical reality of famines in Egypt, and 
of such economic preparation for them. 


CHAPTER XI 


PALESTINE IN THE PATRIARCHAL AGE 


THe TALE OF SINUHE. COMMUNICATION BETWEEN EGYPT AND PALESTINE. ASIATICS 
IN EGYPT. 


1. The Tale of Sinuhe. 

In the year 1970 B. c., when Amenemhet I died and was suc- 
ceeded by Sesostris I, an Egyptian of high rank, named Sinuhe, for 
some reason now unknown to us, fled from Egypt to Asia. The 
details of his escape from Egypt are not of interest to the Biblical 
student, but his description of the hardships encountered in the 
desert and of his experiences in eastern Palestine are of great value, 
as they afford us our earliest description of that country outside the 
Bible. The following extract begins just after Sinuhe had told how 
he escaped the guards in the fort which stood at the eastern frontier 
of Egypt.! 


I went on at the time of evening, 

As the earth brightened, I arrived at Peten. 
When I had reached the lake of Kemwer,? 

I fell down for thirst, fast came my breath, 
My throat was hot, 

I said: ‘This is the taste of death.” 

I upheld my heart, I drew my limbs together, 
As I heard the sound of lowing cattle, 

I beheld the Bedawin. 

That chief among them, who had been in Egypt, recognized me. 
He gave me water, he cooked for me milk. 

I went with him to his tribe, 

Good was that which they did (for me). 

One land sent me on to another, 

I loosed for Suan,’ 

I arrived at Kedem;‘ 

I spent a year and a half there. 


1 From Breasted’s Ancient Records, Egypt, I, p. 237, ff. 

2 An Egyptian name of the northern extension of the Gulf of Suez. 

Some Egyptian trading-post in Asia. 

4 An early name for the region east of the Jordan and the Dead Sea. It is called Kedemah in 
Gen. 25:15 and 1 Chron. 1 : 30; Kedemoth in Deut. 2 : 26, and translated “East” in Judges 
6:3, 33; 7:12; 8:10,11. In Gen. and Chron. the name is applied to a person. 


334 


PALESTINE IN THE PATRIARCHAL AGE 335 


Emuienshe,' that sheik of Upper [Ru]tenu,? brought me forth 
saying to me: “Happy art thou with me, 

(for) thou hearest the speech of Egypt.” 

He said this (for) he knew my character, 

He had heard of my wisdom; 

The Egyptians, who were there with him, bare witness of me. 


The Amorite chieftain then questioned Sinuhe concerning his 
flight. He gave evasive answers, merging with his reply a long 
hymn in praise of the king. After this Emuienshe said to him: 


“Behold, thou shalt now abide with me; 
Good is that which I shall do for thee.” 
He put me at the head of his children, 
He married me to his eldest daughter, 
He made me select for myself of his land, 
Of the choicest of that which he had, 

On his boundary with another land. 

It was a goodly land, named Yaa;? 

There were figs in it and vines, 

More plentiful than water was its wine, 
Copious was its honey, plenteous its oil; 

All fruits were upon its trees. 

Barley was there and spelt, 

Without end all cattle. 

Moreover, great was that which came to me, 
Which came for love of me, 

When he appointed me sheik of the tribe, 
From the choicest of his land. 

I portioned the daily bread, 

And wine for every day, 

Cooked flesh and fowl in roast; 

Besides the wild goats of the hills, 

Which were trapped for me, and brought to me; 
Besides that which my dogs captured for me. 
There was much—made for me, 

And milk in every sort of cooked dish. 

I spent many years, 

My children became strong, 

Each the mighty man of his tribe. 

The messenger going north, 

Or passing southward to the court, 

He turned in to me. 

For I had all men turn in (to me). 


The tale goes on concerning the personal prowess of Sinuhe, who, 
in his old age, returned to Egypt and made his peace with the king. 


1 This is an Amorite name, Ammi-anshi. It shows that the Amorites were already in this 
region. Later the Hebrews found Sihon, the Amorite here; see Num. 21 : 21, ff. and Deut. 1 : 4, ff. 

2 The Egyptian name for the higher parts of Palestine and Syria. The Egyptians had no /; 
they always used 7 instead. The name is identical with the Hebrew Lotan, Gen. 36 : 20, of which 
Lot is a shorter form. 

3 Perhaps the same name as Aiah (Ajah) of Gen. 36 : 24 and 1 Chron, 1 : 40. 


336 ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


2. Communication between Egypt and Palestine. 

This document from the early patriarchal age reveals a close 
relationship between Egypt and Palestine. There was frequent 
communication between Kedem and Egypt; messengers went to 
and fro. The Egyptian language was understood at the court of 
the Amorite chieftain. These conditions throw light on the narra- 
tives of the descent of Abraham and Jacob to Egypt. Sinuhe’s 
description of his life necessarily reminds one of the description 
of Palestine so often met with in the Pentateuch, Joshua, and the 
prophets, “‘a land flowing with milk and honey.” (See, for ex- 
ample, Exod. 3: 8, 17.) 


3. Asiatics in Egypt. 

The entrance of Abraham and later of Jacob and his sons into 
Egypt in time of famine (Gen. 12 : 10 and 47 : 5-12) is strikingly 
illuminated by the following reports of officials stationed at for- 
tresses on the Egyptian border. 

The first of these texts was inscribed in the tomb of Harmhab, 
the founder of the nineteenth dynasty, though there is reason to 
believe that it was written during the reign of Amenophis IV of 
the eighteenth dynasty (1375-1357 B. c.). Some of the lines are 
broken. It reads as follows: 


enon Asiatics; others have been placed in their abodes......they have 
been destroyed, and their town laid waste, and fire has been thrown......... 
[they have come to entreat] the Great in Strength to send his mighty sword 
before. ...... Their countries are starving, they live like goats of the moun- 
tain, [their] children....... saying: “‘A few of the Asiatics, who knew not how 
they should live, have come [begg]ing [a home in the domain] of Pharaoh..... : 
after the manner of your fathers’ fathers since the beginning under,......... 
Now, the Pharaoh. ...gives them into your hand, to protect their borders.’” 


The second text comes from the reign of Merneptah (1225- 
1215 B.c.). It reads as follows: 


Another matter for the satisfaction of my lord’s heart [to wit]: We have 
finished passing the tribes of the Shasu of Edom through the fortress of Mernep- 
tah-Hotephirma...in Theku, to the pools of Pithom, of Merneptah-Hote- 
phirma in Theku, in order to sustain them and their herds in the domain of 
Pharaoh..., the good sun of every land......... I have caused them to be 
brought........ other names of days when the fortress of Merneptah-Hote- 
phirma may be passed,... .? 


These texts make it evident that at different periods of Egyp- 
tian history Asiatic tribes in time of famine and stress sought and 
found refuge in Egypt as the Israelites are said to have done. 


1 Taken from Breasted, Ancient Records, Egypt, III, p. 7. 
2 Taken from Breasted, zbid., p. 273. 


CHAPTER XII 


MOSES AND THE EXODUS 


THE LEGEND OF SARGON OF AGADE; ITS RESEMBLANCE TO THE STORY OF MOSEs. 


1. 


THE PILLAR OF MERNEPTAH; AN APPEARANCE OF THE NAME “ISRAEL.” 


The Legend of Sargon of Agade. 


The following legend! contains a story of the exposure of an infant 
on a river, strikingly like that told of Moses. 


. Sargon, the mighty king, king of Agade am I, 


My mother was lowly; my father I did not know;? 


. The brother of my father dwelt in the mountain. 
. My city is Azupiranu, which is situated on the bank of the Euphrates. 


My lowly mother conceived me, in secret she brought me forth. 


. She placed me in a basket of reeds, she closed my entrance with bitumen, 
. She cast me upon the river, which did not overflow me. 

. The river carried me, it brought me to Akki, the irrigator. 

. Akki, the irrigator, in the goodness of his heart lifted me out, 
. Akki, the irrigator, as his own son...... brought me up; 

. Akki, the irrigator, as his gardener appointed me. 

. When I was a gardener the goddess Ishtar loved me, 

. And for four years I ruled the kingdom. 

. The black-headed? peoples I ruled, I governed; 

. Mighty mountains with axes of bronze I destroyed (?). 

. I ascended the upper mountains; 

. I burst through the lower mountains. 

. The country of the sea I besieged three times; 

. Dilmun‘ I captured (?). 

. Unto the great Dur-ilu I went up, I.......... 

fe ee LEG a a a 


Bee) Sos pew ie ow 6 <a ok 0 «6 0 8 6 le 6 8 8 8 8 8 


. Let him rule, let him govern the black-headed peoples; 
. Mighty mountains with axes of bronze let him destroy; 
. Let him ascend the upper mountains, 

. Let him break through the lower mountains; 

. The country of the sea let him besiege three times; 

. Dilmun let him capture; 

. To great Dur-ilu let him go up. 


1From Cuneiform Texts, &c., in the British Museum, XIII, 42; cf. also King, Chronicles of 


Early 


Babylonian Kings, II, 87, ff. 


2 Another tablet reads ‘‘a father I had not.” 
3 A name for the Semitic peoples of Babylonia. 
4 An island in the Persian Gulf. 


337 


338 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


The rest is too broken for connected translation. 

It is thought by some scholars of the critical school that the 
parallelism between the secret birth, the exposure, the rescue and 
adoption of Sargon, and the account of the secret birth, exposure, 
rescue, and adoption of Moses in Exod. 2 : 1-10 is too close to be 
accidental. Conservative scholars, on the other hand, hold that, if 
the legend of Sargon is historical, it merely affords an example of a 
striking coincidence of events in two independent lives. 

2. The Pillar of Merneptah. 

In the fifth year of King Merneptah, who ruled from 1225-1215 
B. C., and who is thought to be the Pharaoh of the exodus, he in- 
scribed on a pillar an account of his wars and victories. The in- 
scription concludes with the following poetic strophe: 

The kings are overthrown, saying: ‘‘salaam!” 

Not one holds up his head among the nine bows.? 

Wasted is Tehenu,? 

Kheta‘ is pacified, 

Plundered is the Canaan® with every evil, 

Carried off is Askelon, 

Seized upon is Gezer, 

Yenoam! is made as a thing not existing. 

Israel is desolated, his seed is not; 

Palestine has become a widow for Egypt. 

All lands are united, they are pacified; 


Every one that is turbulent is bound by King Merneptah, who gives life like 
Ra every day. 


This inscription contains the only mention of Israel in a document 
of this age outside the Bible. It is, for that reason, of great im- 
portance. It should be noted that Israel is mentioned along with 
peoples and places in Palestine and Phcenicia. The Israel here 
referred to was not, accordingly, in Egypt. Israel, on the other 
hand, may not have been more than a nomadic people. The 
Egyptians used a certain “determinative” in connection with the 
names of settled peoples. That sign is here used with Tehenu, 
Kheta, Askelon, Gezer, and Yenoam, but not with Israel. 

As Merneptah has been supposed by many to be the Pharaoh 
in whose reign the exodus occurred, the mention of Israel here has 

1 Taken from Breasted’s Ancient Records, Egypt, III, p. 264, ff. 

2 That is, the foreign nations. 

3 That is, Lybia, which lay to the west of the Egyptian Delta. 

4 That is, the Hittites. 

5 “The Canaan” refers to the land of Canaan, probably here Pheenicia. 


6 Yenoam was a town situated at the extreme north of Galilee, just at the end of the valley be- 
tween the two ranges of the Lebanon mountains. 


MOSES AND THE EXODUS 339 


somewhat puzzled scholars, and different explanations of the fact 
have arisen. At least one scholar holds that the exodus occurred in 
Merneptah’s third year, and that he afterward attacked the 
Hebrews. Others have supposed that not all the Hebrews had been 
in Egypt, but only the Joseph tribes. Still others have thought that 
the Leah tribes had made their exodus during the eighteenth 
dynasty, and that it was these with whom Merneptah fought, while 
the Rachel tribes made their exodus under the nineteenth dynasty. 
Opinions vary according to the critical views of different writers. 
All scholars would welcome more information on these problems. 


CHAPTER XIII 


THE CODE OF HAMMURAPI AND THE PENTATEUCH 


THE TEXT OF THE CODE; RESEMBLANCE TO AND CONTRAST WITH THE Mosaic CopE. 
THE Mosaic CopE Not BORROWED FROM THE BABYLONIAN; DIFFERENT UNDERLYING 
CONCEPTIONS. 


1. The Text of the Code; Comparison with the Mosaic Code. 

The following code of laws was inscribed by order of Hammurapi, 
of the first dynasty of Babylon (2104-2061 B. c.), on a block of 
black diorite nearly eight feet in height and set up in Esagila, the 
temple of Marduk, in Babylon, so that the people might have the 
laws in the mother-tongue. As this last statement implies, the 
laws are written in Semitic Babylonian; before the time of Hammu- 
rapi the laws had been written in Sumerian. At some later time 
an Elamite conqueror, who was overrunning Babylonia, took this 
pillar away to Susa as a trophy. In course of time the pillar was 
broken into three parts, which were found by the French expedition 
under de Morgan in December, 1901, and January, 1902, while 
excavating at Susa. As the code is the oldest known code of laws 
in the world, being a thousand years older than Moses, and as it 
affords some interesting peculiarities as well as some striking 
parallels to the laws in Exodus 21-23 and in Deuteronomy, a trans- 
lation of it, with some comparison of Exodus and Deuteronomy, 
is here given: 

Against Witches 

§ 1. Ifa man brings an accusation against a man, that he has laid a death- 
spell upon him, and has not proved it, the accuser shall be put to death.! 

§ 2. If a man accuses another of practising sorcery upon him, but has not 
proved it, he against whom the charge of sorcery is made shall go to the sacred 
river; into the sacred river he shall plunge, and if the,sacred river overpowers him, 
his accuser shall take possession of his house. If the sacred river shows that 
man to be innocent, and he is unharmed, he who charged him with sorcery shall 


be killed. He who plunged into the sacred river shall take the house of his 
accuser. 


1 Translated from the cuneiform text in Harper’s Code of Hammurabi, and Ungnad’s Keil- 
schrifitexte der Gesetze Hammurabis. 


340 


HAMMURAPI AND THE PENTATEUCH 341 


With these laws we should compare Exod. 22 : 18, which imposes 
the death penalty upon witches, and Deut. 18 : 10, ff., which de- 
clares that there shall be no sorcerer, diviner, magician, or charmer 
in Israel and promises a line of prophets to render these unnecessary. 
Magic is banished from Israel; its presence in Babylonia is taken for 
granted, and only some of its exercises, which were supposed to be 
especially deadly, were forbidden. In § 2 the man accused of 
sorcery is to be tried by ordeal. He is to plunge into the river and 
if he can swim in its current, he is innocent. Trial by ordeal is found 
but once in the Hebrew laws (Num. 5 : 11-28). There both the 
crime and the ordeal are very different from this. 

Note that in these sections the false accuser suffers in just the 
way he has tried to bring suffering to the other. This is the law of 
retaliation, which appears in Deut. 19 : 16-21, where it is applied 
to false witnesses in the same way as here. It will be found under- 
lying many of the penalties of this code. 


Laws Concerning False Witness 


§ 3. If in a case a man has borne false witness, or accused a man without 
proving it, if that case is a capital case, that man shall be put to death. 

§ 4. If he has borne witness in a case of grain or money, the penalty of that 
case he shall himself bear. 


Hebrew law was similar; a false witness was to be visited with 
the penalty which he had purposed to bring upon his brother 
(Deut. 19 : 18, 19). 


Against Reversing a Judicial Decision 


§5. Ifa judge has pronounced a judgment, made a decision, caused it to be 
sealed, and afterward has altered his judgment, that judge they shall convict on 
account of the case which he decided and altered; the penalty which in that case 
he imposed he shall pay twelvefold, and in the assembly from the seat of his 
judgment they shall expel him; he shall not return; with the judges in a case he 
shall not sit. 


Hebrew law presents no parallel to this. 


Against Theft 


§6. Ifaman steals the goods of a god (temple) or of a palace, that man shall 
be put to death, and he by whose hand the stolen goods were received shall be 
put to death. 

§7. Ifaman purchases or receives on deposit either silver, gold, man-servant, 
maid-servant, ox, sheep, ass, or anything whatever from the hand of a minor or 
a slave without witnesses or contracts, that man is a thief; he shall be put to 
death. 


342 ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


§ 8. Ifa man has stolen ox, or sheep, or ass, or pig, or a boat, either from a 
god (temple) or a palace, he shall pay thirtyfold. If he is a poor man, he shall 
restore tenfold. If the thief has nothing to pay, he shall be put to death. 

§ 9, If aman, who has lost anything, finds that which was lost in a man’s 
hand, (and) the man in whose hand the lost thing was found says: “‘A seller sold 
it; I bought it before witnesses”; and the owner of the lost thing says: “I will 
bring witnesses who know that the lost thing is mine”; if the purchaser brings 
the seller who sold it to him and the witnesses in whose presence it was bought, 
and the owner of the lost thing brings the witnesses who know that the lost 
thing is his, the judges shall examine their testimony. The witnesses before 
whom the purchaser purchased it, and the witnesses who know the lost thing, 
shall give their testimony in the presence of agod. The seller is a thief; he shall 
be put to death. The owner of the lost thing shall take that which was lost. 
The purchaser shall take from the house of the seller the money which he had 


aid. 

§ 10. If the purchaser does not produce the seller who sold it to him and the 
witnesses before whom he bought it, and the owner of the lost thing produces 
the witnesses who know that the lost thing is his, the purchaser is the thief; 
he shall be put to death. The ownerf the lost thing shall take that which he 
lost. 

§ 11. If the owner of the lost thing does not bring the witnesses who know 
that the lost thing is his, he is one who has attempted fraud; he shall be put to 
death. 

§12. If the seller has died, the purchaser shall recover from the house of the 
seller the damages of that case fivefold. 

_§13. If that man has not his witnesses near, the judges shall set an appointed 
time within six months; and if, within six months, his witnesses he does not 
produce, that man is a liar; the penalty of that case he shall himself bear. 


The Hebrew laws comparable to these are found in Exod. 22 : 1+4, 
9, and Lev. 6: 3-5. Exodus directs (v. 1) that, if a man steals an 
ox or a sheep and kills it or sells it, he shall restore five oxen for an 
ox and four sheep fora sheep. In case it is not sold he shall restore 
double (v. 9). No highly organized courts appear in the Biblical 
codes. The thief was brought before God and his guilt determined 
by some religious test. The law of Leviticus required a man guilty 
of theft to restore the lost property, adding to it a fifth more, and 
to offer a ram in sacrifice. (See Exod. 18 : 13-26. Cf. 2 Chron. 
19 : 5-7 with 1 Chron. 23 : 4 and Deut. 16 : 18-20.) 

The Babylonian laws presuppose a much more highly organized 
social community than the Hebrew. 


Against Stealing Children and Slaves 


§14. Ifamansteals the son of a man who isa minor, he shall be put to death. 

§15. Ifaman causes a male or female slave of a palace, or the male or female 
slave of a workingman to escape from the city gate, he shall be put to death. 

§ 16. Ifaman harbors in his house either a male or a female slave who has 
escaped from a palace or from a workingman, and does not bring him out at 
the summons of the officer, the owner of that house shall be put to death. 


HAMMURAPI AND THE PENTATEUCH 343 


$17. Ifa man finds in a field a male or a female slave who has escaped and 
restores him to his owner, the owner of the slave shall pay him 2 shekels of silver. 

$18. Ifthat slave will not name his owner, he shall bring him unto the palace 
and they shall investigate his record and restore him unto his owner. 

§ 19. If he shall detain that slave in his house and afterward the slave is 
found, that man shall be put to death. 

§ 20. If the slave escapes from the hand of his captor, that man shall declare 
it on oath to the owner of the slave and shall be innocent. 


These laws are analogous to Exod. 21:16 and Deut. 23:15. 
The former inflicts the death penalty for stealing a man and selling 
him, and the latter prohibits one in whose house a fugitive slave has 
taken refuge from returning the slave to his master. Slavery was 
not in Israel such a firmly established institution as in Babylonia. 
(See Exod. 21 : 2-6; Deut. 15 : 12-18; Lev. 25 : 25-46.) 


Housebreaking and Brigandage 


§ 21. If a man breaks into a house, before that breach he shall be put to 
death and thrown into it. 

. § ne If a man practices brigandage and is caught, that man shall be put to 
eath. 

§ 23. Ifthe robber is not caught, the man who is robbed shall declare his loss, 
whatever it is, in the presence of a god, and the city and governor in whose 
territory and jurisdiction the robbery was committed shall compensate him for 
whatever was lost. 

a 24. If it is a life, that city and governor shall pay to his relatives 1 mana of 
silver. 


Hebrew law presents an analogy to the last of these sections in 
Deut. 21 : 1-9, though in Israel no compensation was offered to the 
heirs of the man who was slain, but a sacrifice was performed by the 
elders of the nearest city, to purge it of innocent blood. 


Stealing at a Fire 


§ 25. Ifa fire breaks out in a man’s house, and a man who has come to ex- 
tinguish it shall cast his eye upon the furniture of the owner of the house, and 
the furniture of the owner of the house shall take, that man shall be thrown into 
that fire. 


The Duties and Privileges of Soldiers, Constables, and Tax-collectors 


§ 26. If a soldier or a constable? who is ordered to go on a journey for the 
king does not go, but hires a substitute and dispatches him instead, that soldier 
or constable shall be put to death; his hired substitute shall appropriate his 
ho 


use. 
§ 27. Ifa soldier or a constable is detained in a royal fortress and after him 


1 The mana consisted of sixty shekels. In English it is corrupted to mina. 

2 The nature of these officials is in doubt. Scheil and others think the first a recruiting-officer; 
Delitzsch and Ungnad, a soldier. The name of the second officer is literally fish-catcher, but it is 
Certain that here he was some kind of a fisher of men. 


344 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


they give his field or garden to another and he takes it and carries it on, if the 
first one returns and reaches his city, they shall restore to him his field and 
garden, and he shall take it and carry it on. 

§ 28. Ifa soldier or a constable who is detained in a royal fortress has a son 
who is able to carry on his business, they shall give to him his field and garden 
and he shall carry on the business of his father. 

§ 29. If his son is small and not able to carry on the business of his father, 
ne shall give one-third of his field and garden to his mother and she shall rear 

im. 

§ 30. Ifasoldier ora constable from the beginning of his appointment neglects 
his field, garden, and house and leaves them uncared for, another after him shall 
take his field, garden, and house, and carry on his business for three years. If he 
returns and desires his field, garden, and house, they shall not give them to him. 
He who has taken them and carried on the business shall carry it on. 

§ 31. If he leaves it uncared for but one year and returns, they shall give him 
his field, garden, and house, and he shall carry on his own business. 

§ 32. Ifa merchant ransoms a soldier (?) or a constable who, on a journey of 
the king, was detained, and brings him back. to his city, if in his house there is 
sufficient ransom, he shall ransom himself. If in his house there is not sufficient 
to ransom him, by the temple of his city he shall be ransomed. If in the temple 
of his city there is not a sufficient ransom, he shall be ransomed by the palace. 
His field, garden, and house shall not be given for ransom. 

§ 33. Ifa governor or a magistrate harbors a deserting soldier or accepts and 
sends a hired substitute on an errand of the king, that governor or magistrate 
shall be put to death. 

§ 34. Ifa governor or a magistrate takes the property of a soldier, plunders a 
soldier, or hires out a soldier, has defrauded a soldier in a suit before a sheik, or 
takes the present which the king has given to a soldier, that governor or magis- 
trate shall be put to death. 

§ 35. Ifa man buys the cattle or sheep which the king has given to a soldier, 
he shall forfeit his money. 

§ 36. One shall not sell the field, garden, or house of a soldier, constable, or 
tax-collector. 

§ 37. If aman has bought the field, garden, or house of a soldier, constable, 
or tax-collector, his tablet shall be broken, he shall forfeit his money; the field, 
house, or garden shall return to its owner. 

§ 38. A soldier, constable, or tax-collector shall not deed to his wife or daugh- 
ter ae field, house, or garden, which is his perquisite, nor shall he assign them 
for debt. 

§ 39. A field, garden, or house which he has purchased and possesses he may 
deed to his wife or daughter, or may assign for debt. 

§ 40. A priestess, merchant, or other creditor may purchase his field, garden, 
or house. The purchaser shall conduct the business of the field, garden, or 
house which he has purchased. 

§ 41. Ifa man has bargained for the field, garden, or house of a soldier, con- 
stable, or tax-collector and has given sureties, the soldier, constable, or tax- 
collector shall return to the field, house, or garden, and the sureties which were 
given him he shall keep. 


No such officers as these are mentioned in the laws of the Old 
Testament, though some of them appear in earlier times in the 
records of Babylonia. The tax-collectors mentioned here remind us 
of Solomon’s tax-collectors mentioned in 1 Kings 4 : 7, ff. 


HAMMURAPI AND THE PENTATEUCH 345 


Laws of Agriculture 


§42. Ifamanrentsa field for cultivation and produces no grain in that field, 
they shall call him to account for doing no work in that field, and he shall give 
to the owner of the field grain similar to that of adjacent fields. 

§ 43. If he does not cultivate that field and neglects it, he shall give the 
owner of the field grain similar to that of adjacent fields, and the field which he 
neglected he shall break up with mattocks, he shall harrow, and return it to the 
owner of the field. 

§ 44. If aman rents an uncultivated field for three years for improvement 
and neglects its surface and does not develop the field, in the fourth year he shall 
break up the field with mattocks, he shall hoe and harrow it, and return it unto 
the owner of the field, and for every Gan of land he shall measure out 10 Gur of 
grain. 

§ 45. Ifa man lets his field for pay on shares to a farmer and receives his 
rent, and afterward the storm-god inundates the field and carries off the produce, 
the loss is the farmer’s. 

§ 46. If the rent of his field he has not received, and he has let the field for 
one-half or one-third (of the crop), the farmer and the owner of the field shall 
divide the grain which is in the field according to agreement. 

§ 47. If the farmer, because he has not in a former year received a mainte- 
nance, entrusts the field to another farmer, the owner of the field shall not inter- 
fere. He would cultivate it, and his field has been cultivated. At the time of 
harvest he shall take grain according to his contracts. 

§ 48. If a man has a debt against him and the storm-god inundates his 
field and carries away the produce, or if through lack of water grain has 
not grown in the field, in that year he shall not make a return of grain 
to his creditor; his contract he shall change, and the interest of that year he 
shall not pay. 

§ 49. If aman borrows money from a merchant, and has given to the mer- 
chant a field planted with grain or sesame, and says to him: “Cultivate the field 
and harvest and take the grain or sesame which it produces’’; if the tenant pro- 
duces grain or sesame in the field, at the time of harvest the owner of the field 
shall take the grain or sesame which was produced by the field, and shall give to 
the merchant grain for the money which he borrowed from the merchant with 
its interest, and for the maintenance of the farmer. 

§ 50. If the field was already planted [with grain or] sesame, the owner of the 
field shall receive the grain or the sesame which is produced in the field, and the 
money and its interest he shall return to the merchant. 

§ 51. If there is not money to return, he shall give to the merchant [the 
grain or] sesame for the money and its interest which he had received from the 
merchant, according to the scale of prices fixed by the king. 

§ 52. If the farmer does not produce grain or sesame in his field, he shall not 
alter his contract. 

§ 53. Ifa man the side of his strong dyke has neglected and has not strength- 
ened it, and in his dyke a break occurs, and the water destroys the farm-land, 
the man in whose dyke the break occurred shall restore the grain which was 
destroyed. 

§ 54. If heis not able to restore the grain, they shall sell him and his posses- 
gone for money, and the owners of the fields whose grain was destroyed shall 
share it. 

§ 55. Ifaman has opened his sluice for watering and has left it open and the 
water destroys the field of his neighbor, he shall measure out grain to him on the 
basis of that produced by neighboring fields. 


346 ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


§ 56. Ifa man opens the water and the water destroys the work! of a neigh- 
boring field, he shall measure out 10 Gur of grain for each Bur of land. 

§ 57. Ifa shepherd causes his sheep to eat vegetation and has not made an 
agreement with the owner of the field, and without the consent of the owner of 
the field has pastured his sheep, the owner of the field shall harvest that field, and 
the shepherd who without the consent of the owner of the field caused his sheep 
to eat the field, shall pay the owner of the field in addition 20 Gur of grain for 
each Bur of land. 

§ 58. If, after the sheep have come up out of the fields and are turned loose 
on the public common by the city gate, a shepherd turns his sheep into a field 
and causes the sheep to eat the field, the shepherd shall oversee the field which he 
caused to be eaten, and at harvest-time he shall measure to the owner of the 
field 60 Gur of grain for each Bur of land. 


The Hebrew land laws are found in Exod. 22 : 5, 6; 23 : 10, 11; 
Lev. 19:9, and Deut. 24: 19-22; 23:24, 25. An examination of 
these passages reveals a wide difference between Babylonia and Is- 
rael. In Babylonia it seems to have often been the rule that a land- 
lord let out the fields to tenants to work; among the Hebrews the 
law presupposes that each man shall work his own land. Many of 
the Babylonian laws are designed to secure the respective rights of 
landlord and tenant. Naturally, there is nothing in the Old Testa- 
ment to correspond to these. Hebrew law (Exod. 22 : 5), like the 
Babylonian, provides that one who causes a neighbor’s crop to be 
eaten shall make restitution, but the regulations are of the most 
general character. In Babylonia a larger social experience had 
made much more specific regulations necessary. 

The characters of the respective countries are reflected in the 
dangers from which crops might be threatened. In waterless 
Palestine a fire started by a careless man might burn his neighbor’s 
crop (Exod. 22 : 6); in Babylonia, where irrigation from canals was 
conducted to fields lower than the surface of the water, one might 
flood his neighbor’s field and destroy his crop by carelessly leaving 
his sluice open. 

The Hebrew legislation presupposes a poorer community. It 
provides that the land shall lie fallow, and whatever it produces 
shall belong to the poor (Exod. 23 : 10, 11). At harvest-time, too, 
one must not reap the corners of his field; that was left to the poor 
(Lev. 19:9). If one forgot a sheaf in his field, he must not return 
to take it; that should be left to the poor (Deut. 24:19). Rich 
Babylonia made no such provision for the poor; it felt no such social 


sympathy. 


1 Such as plowing, or the young plants early in the season. 


HAMMURAPI AND THE PENTATEUCH 347 


Again, even these agricultural laws show that commerce was 
highly developed in Babylonia, with its necessary concomitant, the 
right to charge interest for money. The uncommercial Hebrews 
regarded interest as unlawful (Exod. 22:25), and it was Hillel, 
the contemporary of Herod the Great, who invented an interpreta- 
tion known as the Prosbul, which practically did away with this 
law and permitted Jews to take interest. 


Horticultural Laws 


§ 59. Ifa man shall cut down a tree in a man’s orchard without the consent 
of the owner, he shall pay 4 mana of silver. 

§ 60. Ifaman gives a field to a gardener to plant as an orchard, the gardener 
shall plant the orchard and cultivate it for 4 years. In the fifth year the owner 
of the orchard and the gardener shall share it together. The owner of the 
orchard shall mark off his share and take it. 

§ 61. If the gardener in planting does not complete it, but leaves a part of it 
waste, unto his portion they shall count it. 

§ 62. If the field which is given to a gardener he does not plant, if vegetation 
is the produce of the field for the years during which it is neglected, the gardener 
shall measure out to the owner of the field on the basis of the adjacent fields, and 
shall perform the work on the field and restore it to the owner of the field. 

§ 63. If the field is [left] waste land, he shall perform the work on the field 
and shall restore it to its owner, and 10 Gur of grain for each Bur of land he shall 
measure out. 

§ 64. Ifa man lets his orchard to a gardener to manage, as long as the gar- 
dener is in possession of the garden he shall give to the owner of the garden two- 
thirds of the produce; one-third he shall take himself. 

§ 65. Ifthe gardener does not manage the garden and diminishes its produce, 
the gardener shall measure out the produce of the orchard on the basis of ad- 
jacent orchards. 

§ 66. Ifa man has received money from a merchant, and his merchant puts 
him under bonds and he has nothing to give,.and he gives his orchard for manage- 
ment unto the merchant and says: ‘“The dates as many as are in my orchard take 
for thy money,” that merchant shall not consent; the owner of the orchard shall 
take the dates that are in the orchard and the money and its interest according 
to the tenor of his agreement he shall bring to the merchant. The remaining 
dates from the orchard shall belong to the owner of the orchard. 


As in Palestine, there was no system of rental; the Bible contains 
almost no horticultural laws. ‘‘Orchards’” in Babylonia were, as 
the last section shows, date orchards. The corresponding fruit in 
Palestine was the grape. Hebrew laws deal with vineyards as with 
fields. If a man destroys the crop in another’s vineyard, he is to 
give the best of his own (Exod. 22:5). He is to leave his crop 
unpicked every seventh year for the poor (Exod. 23:11). He is 
not, when he gathers it, to glean it carefully, but leave some for the 


1 At this point five columns of the pillar are erased. It is estimated that 35 sections of the laws 
are thus lost. § 66 is added from a fragment found at Susa. 


348 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


poor (Lev. 19 : 10). When one goes into his neighbor’s vineyard, 
he may pick what he wishes to eat, but must carry nothing away. 
Horticulture among the Hebrews was not so highly developed as in 
Babylonia. 

Five columns of writing have been erased after § 65 from the 
column on which the laws are written. This erasure was probably 
made by the Elamite conqueror, who carried the column as a trophy 
to Susa, in order to inscribe his own name on it, but unfortunately, 
if that was the intention, it was never carried out. We are accord- 
ingly in ignorance of his name. It is estimated that 35 sections of 
laws were thus lost. As already noted, one can be supplied from a 
fragment found at Susa, and from other tablets fragments of two or 
three other sections can be made out. One of these incomplete 
fragments refers to the rights of tenants of houses. It reads: 


[If] a man rents a house for money, and pays the whole rent for a year to the 
owner of the house, and the owner of the house orders that man to vacate 
before the expiration of his lease, the owner of the house from the money that he 
recélved shall ie tera 


Unfortunately, the tablet is broken and the penalty for breaking 
the lease is unknown. It is interesting to know that Babylonian 
tenants were protected from avaricious landlords, even though 
no parallel law exists in the Old Testament. 

Two other sections of laws that once stood in this lacuna can now 
be supplied from a considerably defaced tablet from Nippur in the 
University Museum in Philadelphia, which once contained a part or 
all of the code of Hammurapi. These sections are as follows: 


A Bankrupt Law! 


If a man borrows grain or money from a merchant and for the payment has 
no grain or money, whatever is in his hand he shall in the presence of the elders 
give to the merchant in place of the debt; the merchant shall not refuse it; he 
shall receive it. 


A Partnership Law? 


If a man gives money to a man for a partnership, the gain and profit that 
accrue are before the gods; together they shall do business. 


The phrase “before the gods” means that the division shall be 
made on oath. Commercial life was not sufficiently developed 


1 Translated from Poebel, Historical and Grammatical Texts, Philadelphia, 1914, No. 93, col. ii. 
2 Translated from 7bid., col. iii. 


HAMMURAPI AND THE PENTATEUCH 349 


among the Hebrews so that they needed such a law, consequently 
the Pentateuch contains no parallel to this. 

After the erasure of five columns the laws have to do with agents 
or traveling salesmen. 


Agents and Merchants 


§ 100. [Ifan agent has received money from a merchant, he shall write down 
the amount and the amount of] the interest on the money, and, when the time 
has expired, he shall repay the merchant as much as he has received. 

§ 101. If where he goes he does not meet with success, the agent shall double 
the amount of the money he received and return it to the-merchant. 

§ 102. Ifamerchant gives money to an agent as a favor, and where he goes he 
meets with misfortune, he shall restore the principal unto the merchant. 

§ 103. If on the road as he travels an enemy robs him of anything he carries, 
the agent shall give an account of it under oath and shall be innocent. 

§ 104. If a merchant has given to an agent grain, wool, or oil, or anything 
whatever to sell, the agent shall write down the price and shall return the money 
to the merchant. The agent shall take a receipt for the money which he gives 
to the merchant. 

§ 105. If the agent is careless and does not take a receipt for the money he 
gave the merchant, money not receipted for shall not be placed to his account. 

§ 106. Ifanagent receives money from a merchant and has a dispute with his 
merchant about it, that merchant shall put the agent on trial on oath before the 
elders concerning the money he received and the agent shall pay the merchant 
three times as much as he received. 

§ 107. Ifa merchant lends to an agent and the agent returns to the merchant 
whatever the merchant had given him, if the merchant has a dispute with him 
about it, that agent shall put the merchant on trial on oath in the presence of the 
elders, and the merchant, because he had a dispute with his agent, whatever he 
received he shall give to the agent six times as much. 


The Hebrews of the Old Testament time were not a commercial 
people and had no such laws. Men today are inclined to think that 
the drummer, or traveling salesman, is a modern invention, but 
these laws show that he was an old institution in Babylonia four 
thousand years ago. 


Wine Merchants 


§ 108. Ifa woman who keeps a wine-shop does not receive grain as the price 
of drink, but takes money of greater value, or makes the measure of drink smaller 
than the measure of grain, that mistress of a wine-shop they shall put on trial and 
into the water shall throw her. 

§ 109. If the mistress of a wine-shop collects criminals in her house, and does 
not seize these criminals and conduct them to the palace, that mistress of a 
wine-shop shall be put to death. 

§ 110. If the wife of a god (i. e., a consecrated temple-woman), who is not 
living in the house appointed, opens a wine-shop or enters a wine-shop for a 
drink, they shall burn that woman. 

§ 111. If the mistress of a wine-shop gives 60 Qa of sakani-plant drink on 
credit at the time of harvest, she shall receive 50 Qa of grain. 


350 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


The Old Testament affords no parallel. There were no wine- 
shops in Israel so far as we know, and such consecrated women were 
prohibited by Deut. 23 : 17. 


Deposits and Distraints 


§112. Ifaman continually traveling has given silver, gold, precious stones, or 
property to a man and has brought them to him for transportation, and that 
man does not deliver that which was for transportation at the place to which it 
was to be transported, but has appropriated it, the owner of the transported 
goods shall put that man on trial concerning that which was to be transported 
and was not delivered, and that man shall deliver unto the owner of the trans- 
ported goods five times as much as was entrusted to him. 

§ 113. Ifa man has grain or money deposited with a man and without the 
consent of the owner he takes grain from the heap or the granary, they shall 
prosecute that man because he took grain from the heap or the granary without 
the consent of the owner, and the grain as much as he took he shall return, and 
whatever it was he shall forfeit an equal amount. 

§ 114. If a man does not have against a man [a claim] for grain or money 
and secures a warrant against him for debt, for each warrant he shall pay 4 of a 
mana of money. 

§ 115. If aman holds against a man [a claim] for grain or money and secures 
a warrant against him for debt and the debtor dies through his fate in the house 
of the creditor, that case has no penalty. 

§ 116. If the debtor dies through violence or lack of care, the owner of the 
debtor shall prosecute the merchant; if it was the son of a man, his son shall be 
put to death; if the slave of a man, he shall pay § of a mana of money, and what- 
ever [the debt] was, he shall forfeit as much. 


Among the Hebrews, as among other ancient peoples, the poor 
at times deposited their valuables with the more powerful for safe- 
keeping. This was natural before the invention of banks and safe 
deposit vaults. 

The Hebrew law in Exod. 22 : 7-10 provides that if goods are 
given to another man to keep and are stolen out of his house, the 
thief should, if found, restore double the amount taken. If the 
thief was not found, the owner of the house should be brought 
to God (so American R. V.)!, z. e., to the temple, where in some way 
(probably by lot) it was determined whether he was guilty. If 
guilty, the owner of the house had to restore twofold. 

Somewhat parallel to the Babylonian laws which permit the 
imprisonment of a debtor in one’s house is the Hebrew law that a 
poor debtor might become a slave for six years (Exod. 21 : 2-6; 
Deut. 15: 7-18). The Old Testament laws are not quite uniform. 
In reality it is only that of Deuteronomy which contemplates 
slavery in consequence of indebtedness; Exodus speaks as though 


1 The translation, “be brought to the judges,” has no warrant in the Hebrew. 


HAMMURAPI AND YHE PENTATEUCH ool 


the slave might not be bought in any way. The important point 
is that in Babylonia a man might be imprisoned for debt; in Israel 
he might become a temporary slave. 

As to the deposit of valuable property with a creditor for security, 
the Hebrew law, while it shows that there were other kinds of 
pledges (Deut. 24 : 10, ff.), mentions but one kind. This was in 
the case of a man so poor that he had to give his outer garment as 
security. The law provided that this should be returned to him at 
night, since the poor peasants had no other blankets than these 
garments. A hard-hearted creditor might, by keeping the garment 
at night, risk the life of the debtor (Exod. 22 : 26, 27; Deut. 24: 
11-13). 

Debts 

§117. Ifaman is subjected to an attachment for debt and sells his wife, son, 
or daughter, or they are given over to service, for three years they shall work in 
the house of their purchaser or temporary master; in the fourth year they shall be 
te tL 8. If he binds to service a male or a female slave, and the merchant trans- 
fers or sells him, he can establish no claim. 

§119. If a man is subjected to an attachment for debt and sells a maid- 


servant who has borne him children, the owner of the maid-servant shall pay 
and shall release his maid-servant. 


These laws are quite similar to Exod. 21: 2-11 and Deut. 15: 
12-18. 

The main differences are that the Hebrew law contemplates that 
a man may enter slavery himself; the Babylonian only that he shall 
permit his wife, son, or daughter to do it. The Hebrews released 
such slaves at the end of six years;' the Babylonians at the end of 
three. Hebrew law recognized, too, that a man might sell his 
daughter into slavery (Exod. 21 : 7-11), but it stipulated that her 
treatment should be different from that of men. It recognizes that 
either her master or his son would be likely to make her a real or a 
secondary wife. She was not to be released at the end of seven 
years, but in case her master did not deal with her in certain speci- 
fied ways she regained her freedom regardless of her period of 
service. 

Storage of Grain 


§ 120. Ifamanhas stored his grain in heaps in the building of another and an 
accident happens in the granary, or the owner of the building has disturbed the 
1 Since Deut. 15 : 18 says that such a slave has served “double the hire of a hireling,’’ Dr. Johns 


thinks that it betrays a knowledge of the Babylonian three-year regulation. This seems, however, 
quite problematical. 


352 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


heap and taken grain, or has disputed the amount of grain that was stored in his 
building, the owner of the grain shall give an account of his grain under oath, the 
owner of the building shall double the amount of grain which he took and 
restore it to the owner of the grain. 

§ 121. Ifa man stores grain in a man’s building, he shall pay each year 5 Qa 
of grain for each Gur of grain. 


These laws have no Biblical parallel. 


Deposits and Losses 


§ 122. Ifa man gives to another on deposit silver or gold or anything what- 
ever, anything as much as he deposits he shall recount to witnesses and shall 
institute contracts and make the deposit. 

§ 123. If without witnesses and contracts he has placed anything on deposit 
and at the place of deposit they dispute it, that case has no penalty. 

§ 124. Ifa man gives to another on deposit silver or gold or anything what- 
ever in the presence of witnesses and he disputes it, he shall prosecute that man 
and he shall double whatever he disputed and shall repay it. 

§ 125. Ifa man places anything on deposit and at the place of deposit either 
through burglary or pillage anything of his is lost, together with anything be- 
longing to the owner of the building, the owner of the building who was negligent 
and lost what was given him on deposit shall make it good and restore it to the 
owner of the goods. The owner of the house shall institute a search for what- 
ever was lost and take it from the thief. 

§ 126. Ifaman has not lost anything, but says he has lost something, or files 
a claim as though he had lost something, he shall give account of his claim on 
atk and whatever he brought suit for he shall double and shall give for his 
claim. 


There is no mention in the laws of the Old Testament of this 
kind of deposit, though, as already noted, it probably was some- 
times practised. 

Against Slandering Women 


§ 127. Ifaman causes the finger to be pointed at the woman of a god or the 
wife of aman and cannot prove it, they shall bring him before the judges and they 
shall brand his forehead. 


The nearest parallel to this in the Old Testament is in Deut. 
22 : 13-21, which is really quite a different law, for it applies only 
to cases where men, when just married, slander their wives by 
charging them with previous impurity. The Hebrew law provides 
a method of trial, a punishment for the man, if guilty, and a much 
severer one for the woman, if the charge is true. The two codes 
belong to quite a different legal development, as is shown by the 
fact that the Babylonian law refers to ‘‘a woman of a god,” i. e., one 
of the temple-women who, under certain religious rules, repre- 
sented in a concrete way the procreative power of the god. 


HAMMURAPI AND THE PENTATEUCH 353 


This code recognizes several classes of these, as will appear later, 
but Hebrew law forbade the existence of such women in Israel 
(Deut. 235.17). 


Chastity, Marriage, and Divorce 


§ 128. If a man takes a wife and does not execute contracts for her, that 
woman is no wife. 

§ 129. If the wife of a man is caught lying with another man, they shall bind 
them and throw them into the water. If the husband of the woman would let 
her live, or the king would let his subject live, he may do so. 

§ 130. If a man forces the betrothed wife of another who is living in her 
father’s house and has not known a man, and lies in her loins and they catch 
him, that man shall be put to death and that woman shall go free. 

§ 131. If the wife of a man is accused by her husband, and she has not been 
ee lying with another man, she shall swear her innocence and return to her 

ouse. 

§ 132. If the finger has been pointed at the wife of a man because of another 
man and she has not been caught lying with the other man, for her husband’s 
sake she shall plunge into the sacred river. 

§ 133. Ifa man is taken captive and there is food in his house, his wife shall 
not go out from his house, her body she shall guard, into the house of another she 
shall not enter. If that woman does not guard her body and enters into the 
house of another, that woman they shall prosecute and throw her into the water. 

§ 134. If a man is taken captive and in his house there is no food, and his 
wife enters into the house of another, that woman is not to blame. 

§ 135. If a man is taken captive and there is no food in his house and his 
wife has openly entered into the house of another and borne children, and 
afterwards her husband returns and reaches his city, that woman shall return 
to her husband and the children shall follow their father. 

§ 136. If aman deserts his city and flees and after it his wife enters into the 
house of another, if that man returns and would take his wife, because he de- 
serted his city and fled, the wife of the fugitive shall not return to the house of 
her husband. 

§ 137. Ifaman sets his face against a concubine who has borne him children 
or a wife that has presented him with children, to put her away, he shall return 
to that woman her marriage portion, and shall give her the income of field, gar- 
den, and house, and she shall bring up her children. From the time that her 
children are grown, from whatever is given to her children, a portion like that of 
a son shall be given to her, and the husband of her choice she may marry. 

§ 138. Ifa man would put away his spouse who has not borne him children, 
he shall give her silver equal to her marriage gift, and the dowry which she 
brought from her father’s house he shall restore to her and may put her away. 

§ 139. Ifshe had no dowry, he shall give her one mana of silver for a divorce. 

§ 140. I£ he belongs to the laboring class, he shall give her one-third of a 
mana of silver. 

§ 141. If the wife of a man who is living in the house of her husband sets her 
face to go out and act the fool, her house neglects and her husband belittles, they 
shall prosecute that woman. If her husband says: “I divorce her,” he may 
divorce her. On her departure nothing shall be given her for her divorce. If 
her husband does not say: “‘I divorce her,”’ her husband may take another wife; 
that woman shall dwell as a slave in the house of her husband. 

§ 142. If a woman hates her husband and says: “Thou shalt not hold me,” 
they shall make investigation concerning her into her defects. If she has been, 
discreet and there is no fault, and her husband has gone out and greatly be- 


354 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


littled her, that woman has no blame; she may take her marriage-portion and go 
to her father’s house. 

§ 143. If she has not been discreet, and has gone out and neglected her house 
and belittled her husband, they shall throw that woman into the water. 

§ 144. If aman takes a priestess and that priestess gives a female slave to 
her husband, and she has children; if that man sets his face to take a concubine, 
they shall not favor that man. He may not take a concubine. 

§ 145. If a man takes a priestess and she does not present him with 
children and he sets his face to take a concubine, that man may take a 
concubine and bring her into his house. That concubine shall not rank with 
the wife. 

§ 146. Ifaman takes a priestess and she gives to her husband a maid-servant 
and she bears children, and afterward that maid-servant would take rank with 
her mistress; because she has borne children her mistress may not sell her for 
money, but she may reduce her to bondage and count her among the female 
slaves. 

§ 147. If she has not borne children, her mistress may sell her for money. 

§ 148. Ifa man takes a wife and she is attacked by disease, and he sets his 
face to take another, he may doit. His wife who was attacked by disease he 
may not divorce. She shall live in the house he has built and he shall support 
her as long as she lives. 

§ 149. If that woman does not choose to live in the house of her husband, he 
shall make good to her the dowry which she brought from her father’s house 
and she may go away. 

§ 150. Ifa man presents his wife with field, garden, house, or goods, and gives 
to her sealed deeds, after her husband’s death her children shall not press a 
claim against her. The mother after her death may leave it to her child whom 
she loves, but to a brother she may not leave it. 

§ 151. Ifa wife who is living in the house of a husband has persuaded her 
husband and he has bound himself that she shall not be taken by a creditor of 
her husband; if that man had a debt against him before he took that woman, the 
creditor may not hold that woman, and if that woman had a debt against her 
before she entered the house of her husband, her creditor may not hold her 
husband. 

§ 152. If they become indebted after the woman enters the man’s house, 
both of them are liable to the merchant. 

§ 153. Ifa woman causes the death of her husband on account of another 
man, that woman they shall impale. 

§ 154. Ifaman has known his daughter, the city shall drive out that man. 

§ 153. If a man has betrothed a bride to his son and his son has known her 
and he afterward lies in her loins and they catch him, they shall bind that man 
and throw him into the water. 

§ 156. Ifa man has betrothed a bride to his son and his son has not known 
her and he lies in her loins, he shall pay her half a mana of silver and restore to 
her whatever she brought from the house of her father, and the man of her 
choice may marry her. 

§ 157. Ifa man after his father’s death lies in the loins of his mother, they 
shall burn both of them. 

§ 158. If aman after his father’s death is admitted to the loins of his chief 
mee who has borne children, that man shall be expelled from the house of bis 

ather. 

§ 159. Ifaman who has brought a present unto the house of his father-in-law 
and has given a bride-price looks with longing upon another woman, and says 
to his father-in-law: “Thy daughter I will not take,” the father of the daughter 
shall keep whatever was brought to him. 


HAMMURAPI AND THE PENTATEUCH 355 


§ 160. Ifa man brings a present to the house of a father-in-law and gives a 
bride-price, and the father of the daughter says: “I will not give thee my 
daughter,’ whatever was brought him he shall double and restore it. 

§ 161. Ifa man brings a present to the house of his father-in-law and gives 
a bride-price, and his neighbor slanders him, and the father says to the groom: 
“Thou shalt not take my daughter,’ whatever was brought he shall double 
and restore to him. 


These Babylonian laws present numerous points of contact and 
of divergence, when compared with the Biblical laws on the same 
subject. There is no Biblical parallel to § 128. The law (§ 129) 
which imposes the death penalty upon a man who commits adultery 
with another man’s wife and upon the woman, finds an exact parallel 
in Lev. 20:10 and Deut. 22 : 22, though the Biblical law, unlike 
the Babylonian, provides no way in which clemency could be ex- 
tended to the offenders. 

The laws in §§ 130, 156, concerning the violation of betrothed 
virgins, are in a general way paralleled by Lev. 19 : 20-22 and 
Deut. 22 : 23-26, though there are such differences that, while the 
underlying principles are the same, it is clear that there was entire 
independence of development. A religious element enters into 
Leviticus that is entirely absent from the Babylonian code. The 
Bible contains two laws on this subject that are without parallel in 
the Babylonian code. These are found in Exod. 22:16, 17 and 
Deut. 22 : 28, 29, and impose penalties for the violation of virgins 
who were not betrothed. In both codes the principle is manifest 
that the loss of a girl’s honor was to be compensated by money, 
though Deut. 22 : 28, 29 recognizes that it has a value that money 
cannot buy. 

The laws relating to a wife whose fidelity is suspected (§§ 131, 
132) find a general parallel in Num. 5 : 11-28. The provision at 
the end of § 132 that the wife should plunge into the sacred river 
is in the nature of trial by ordeal. The law in Numbers imposes 
on such a woman trial by ordeal, though it is of a different sort. 
She must drink water in which dust from the floor of the sanctuary 
is mingled—dust surcharged with divine potency—and if she does 
not swell up and die, she is counted innocent. 

The laws which provide that a wife may present her husband 
with a slave-girl as a concubine (§§ 137, 144-147) are without paral- 
lel in the Biblical codes, but are strikingly illustrated by the patri- 
archal narratives. Sarah gave Hagar to Abraham (Gen. 16); 
Rachel and Leah gave Bilhah and Zilpah to Jacob (Gen. 30 : 1-13). 


356 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


The law (§ 146) which deals with such a slave-girl who would rank 
with her mistress is closely parallel to the story of the treatment of 
Hagar in Gen. 16 : 5-7 and 21 : 9, 10. 

The laws on divorce (§$ 138-141) are really in advance of the one 
Biblical law on the subject (Deut. 24: 1-4). The law in Deuter- 
onomy permits a husband to put away a wife, who in any way 
does not please him, without alimony, while to the wife no privilege 
of initiating divorce proceedings is granted at all. The Babylonian 
laws secure to the divorced woman a maintenance, and, while by 
no means according her equal rights with the man, provide (§ 142) 
that she may herself initiate the proceedings for divorce. ‘The or- 
deal must have been an unpleasant one, but in Israel’s law a woman 
had no such rights.! 

The law concerning adultery with a daughter-in-law (§ 155) is 
identical in purpose and severity with Lev. 20:12. The laws in 
§§ 157, 158, which prohibit immorality with one’s mother or the 
chief wife of one’s father, just touch upon the great subject of 
incest and the prohibited degrees of marriage which are treated at 
considerable length in Lev. 18: 6-18; 20:11, 19-21, and Deut. 
22:30. The Babylonian laws touch but two specific cases, which 
may be said to be covered by Deut. 22 : 30, while the laws of 
Leviticus treat the whole subject of the prohibited degrees of mar- 
riage in a broad and comprehensive way. The main idea pervading 
Leviticus is holiness. Israel is to be kept free from the pollution 
of incest in any form. The religious motive exhibited here is 
foreign to the Babylonian code. 


Inheritance 


§ 162. It a man takes a wife and she bears him children and that woman 
dies, her father may not lay claim to her dowry. Her dowry belongs to her 
children. 

§ 163. If aman takes a wife and she does not present him with children and 
that woman dies; if his father-in-law returns unto him the marriage-settlement, 
which that man brought to the house of the father-in-law, unto the dowry of that 
woman her husband may not lay claim. Her dowry belongs to the house of her 
father. 

§ 164. But if his father-in-law does not return the marriage-settlement unto 
him, he shall deduct from her dowry the amount of the marriage-settlement, and 
then return the dowry to the house of her father. 


1In a marriage contract on a papyrus from the Jewish colony at Elephantine in Egypt, 
written in the fifth century B.c., it is provided that the wife may institute divorce proceed- 
ings on an equality with the husband. Some Jewish women thus secured by contract that 
which the law did not grant them. Christ assumed such cases among Palestinian women; see 
Mark 10: 12. 


HAMMURAPI AND THE PENTATEUCH 357 


§ 165. If aman has presented to his son, the first in his eyes, field, garden, 
or house, and written for him a sealed deed, and afterward the father dies; 
when the brothers divide, he shall take the present which his father gave 
paras over and above they shall divide the goods of the father’s house 
equally. 

§ 166. Ifaman takes wives for the sons which he possesses, but has not taken 
a wife for his youngest son, and afterward the father dies; when the brothers 
divide, for their younger brother who does not have a wife they shall present 
over and above his portion money for a marriage-settlement, and shall enable 
him to take a wife. 

§ 167. If a man takes a wife and she bears him children and that woman 
dies, and after her he takes a second and she bears him children, after the father 
dies, the children shall not share according to their mothers. They shall receive 
the dowries of their respective mothers, and the goods of their father’s house they 
shall share equally. 

§ 168. Ifa man has set his face to cut off his son, and says to the judges: “I 
will cut off my son,” the judges shall make investigation concerning him; if 
the son has not committed a grave crime which cuts off from sonship, the father 
may not cut off his son from sonship. 

§ 169. If he has committed against his father a grave crime which cuts off 
from sonship, he shall pardon him for the first offense. If he commits a grave 
crime the second time, the father may cut off his son from sonship. 

§ 170. Ifaman’s wife bears him children and a slave-girl bears him children, 
and the father during his lifetime says to the children which the slave-girl bore 
him: ‘My children,” and counts them with the children of the wife, after the 
father dies the children of the wife and the children of the slave-girl shall divide 
equally the goods of their father’s house. The sons that are sons of the wife 
shall at the sharing divide and take. 

§ 171. But if the father during his lifetime has not said unto the children 
which the slave-girl bore him: ‘‘My children,” after the father dies the children 
of the slave-girl shall not share with the children of the wife. The slave-girl 
and her children shall be given their freedom; the children of the wife may not 
put a claim upon the children -of the slave-girl for service. The wife shall 
receive her dowry and a gift which her husband gave her and wrote upon a tablet 
and may dwell in the dwelling of her husband as long as she lives and eat. She 
may not sellit. After her it belongs to her children. 

§ 172. If her husband has not given her a gift, they shall restore to her her 
dowry and she shall receive from the goods of the house of her husband the 
portion of one son. If the children abuse her in order to drive her from the 
house, the judges shall investigate concerning her and if they find the children 
in the wrong, that woman shall not go from the house of her husband. If that 
woman sets her face to go out, she shall leave with her children the gift which her 
husband gave her; the dowry from the house of her father she shall receive and 
the husband of her choice may take her. 

§ 173. If that woman, where she has entered, bears children to her later 
husband, after that woman dies the children of her first and her later husband 
shall share her dowry. 

§ 174. If she did not bear children to her later husband, the children of her 
first husband shall receive her dowry. 

§175. Ifaslave of the palace or the slave of a workingman takes the daughter 
of a patrician and she bears children, the owner of the slave shall have no claim 
for service on the children of the daughter of a patrician. 

§ 176. But if a slave of the palace or the slave of a workingman takes the 
daughter of a patrician, and when he takes her she enters together with the 
dowry from her father’s house into the house of the slave of the palace or the 


358 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


slave of the workingman; if after they are united they build a house and acquire 
property and afterward the slave of the paface or the slave of the workingman 
dies, the daughter of the patrician shall receive her dowry and they shall divide 
into two parts whatever her husband and herself had acquired after their union. 
Half the owner of the slave shall take, and the daughter of the patrician shall 
receive half for her children. If the daughter of the patrician had no dowry, 
whatever her husband and herself had acquired after their union they shall 
divide into two parts. The owner of the slave shall take half and the daughter 
of the patrician shall receive half for her children. 

§ 177. Ifa widow whose children are minors sets her face to enter the house 
of a second husband, she shall not do it without the consent of the judges. When 
she enters the house of a second husband, the judges shall inquire into the estate 
of her former husband, and the estate of the former husband they shall entrust 
to the second husband and to that woman, and shall cause them to leave a tablet 
(receipt). The estate they shall guard and rear the minors. The household 
goods they may not sell. The purchaser of household goods belonging to the 
children of a widow shall forfeit his money. The goods shall revert to their 
owners. 

§ 178. If there is a wife of a god, priestess, or sacred harlot, whose father has 
given her a dowry and written her a record of gift, and in the record of gift he 
has not written, ‘‘after her she may give it to whomsoever she pleases,”’ and has 
not given her full discretion; after her father dies her brothers shall take her 
field and garden, and according to the value of her share they shall give her grain, 
oil, and wool, and shall content her heart. If her brothers shall not give her 
grain, oil, and wool, according to the value of her share, and shall not content 
her heart, she may let her field and garden unto any tenant she pleases and her 
tenant shall maintain her. Her field, garden, or whatever her father gave her 
she may enjoy as long as she lives. She may not sell it for money or transfer it 
to another. Her heritage belongs to her’ brothers. 

§ 179. If there is a wife of a god, priestess, or sacred harlot, whose father 
has given her a dowry and written a record of gift; and in the record of gift he 
has written, “after her she may give it to whomsoever she pleases,’ and has 
granted her full discretion; after her father dies she may give it after her to 
whomsoever she pleases. Her brothers have no claim upon her. 

§ 180. Ifa father does not give a dowry to his daughter, a priestess living in 
the appointed house, or a sacred harlot, after the father dies she shall receive 
from the goods of her father’s house the same share as one son, and as long as she 
lives she shall enjoy it. After her it belongs to her brothers. 

§ 181. If the father of a priestess, sacred harlot, or temple maiden gives her 
to a god and does not give her a dowry, after the father dies she shall receive 
from the goods of her father’s house a third of the portion of a son and shall en- 
joy it as long as she lives. After her it belongs to her brothers. 

§ 182. Ifa father does not give a dowry to his daughter, a priestess of Marduk 
of Babylon, and does not write a record of gift for her; after-her father dies she 
shall receive from the goods of her father’s house one-third of the portion of a 
son, and shall pay no tax. A priestess of Marduk after her death may leave it to 
whomsoever she pleases. 

§ 183. Ifa father presents a dowry to his daughter who is a concubine, and 
gives her to a husband and writes a record of gift; after the father dies she shall 
not share in the goods of her father’s house. 

§ 184. Ifa father does not present a dowry to his daughter who is a concu- 
bine and does not give her to a husband; after her father’s death her brothers 
shall give her a dowry according to the value of the father’s estate and shall give 
her to a husband. 


= 
rr 


HAMMURAPI AND THE PENTATEUCH 359 


In comparison with these Babylonian laws of inheritance those 
in the Old Testament are comparatively simple. We learn from 
Deut. 21 : 15-17, that a man’s firstborn son received a “‘double 
portion”’ of his father’s estate, 7. e., twice as much as any other son. 
The inference is that the other sons shared equally. This law also 
provides that, when a man has two wives, the sons of the favorite 
wife shall have no advantage as to inheritance over the sons of the 
less loved wife. In Num. 27 : 8-11 it is provided that if a man has 
no son, his estate (7. e., real estate) may go to his daughter; if he 
has no daughter, it may go to his brothers; if no brothers, it goes to 
his father’s brothers. If his father has no brothers, the estate 
is to go to the next of kin. In Num. 36: 2-12 the law that a 
daughter may inherit her father’s estate is supplemented by the 
provision that such a daughter must marry within the tribe, so 
that the landed property may not in the next generation pass out 
of the tribe. 

Such were the Hebrew laws of inheritance. They apply to a 
much less complexly organized society than the Babylonian. 

§§ 168, 169 of Hammurapi’s code deal with the cutting off of a 
son. This is paralleled in Deut. 21 : 18-21, though punishment 
inflicted by the law in Deuteronomy is quite different from the 
Babylonian, since the Hebrew boy, whose parents have proved him 
before the elders to be unworthy of sonship, was not cast out and 
sent away, but stoned to death. Another form of this law appears 
in Exod. 21 : 17. 


Adoption 


§ 185. If a man takes a young child in his name unto sonship and brings 
him up, one may not bring a claim for that adopted son. 

§ 186. Ifa man takes a young child unto sonship, and when he has taken him 
he rebels against his [adopted] father and mother, that foster-child shall return 
to his father’s house. 

§ 187. One may not bring claim for the son of a temple-servant, a palace 
guard, or of a sacred harlot. 

§ 188. Ifan artisan takes a son to sonship and teaches him his handicraft, one 
may not bring claim for him. 

§ 189. If he does not teach him his handicraft, that foster-son may return to 
the house of his father. 

§ 190. If a man does not count among his sons a young child whom he has 
taken to sonship and reared, that foster-child may return to his father’s house. 

§ 191. Ifaman who takes a young child to sonship and rears him and estab- 
lishes a house and acquires children, afterward sets his face to cut off that foster- 
son, that son shall not go his way. The father who reared him shall give him 
from his goods one-third the share of ason and he shall go. From field, garden, 
or house, he shall not give him. 


360 ARCHAKOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


In the codes of the Old Testament there are no laws of adoption. 
The story of the adoption of Ephraim and Manasseh by Jacob in 
Gen. 48 shows that the idea was not unknown to the Hebrews, 
among whom the ceremony of adoption would seem to have con- 
sisted of the act of acknowledging the children as one’s own by 
placing one’s hands on their heads and giving them a paternal 


blessing. 
Renunciation of Sonship 


§ 192. If the son of a temple-servant or the son of a sacred harlot says to the 
father that brought him up or to the mother that brought him up, “Thou art not 
my father,” or, “Thou art not my mother,” they shall cut out his tongue. 

§ 193. If the son of a temple-servant or the son of a sacred harlot has identi- 
fied his father’s house and hated the father who brought him up or the mother 
who brought him up and goes back to his father’s house, they shall pluck out his 
eye. 


The Old Testament has no laws with which to compare these. 
The two classes of persons whose children are mentioned were 
banished from Israel by Deut. 23 : 17, 18. 


Wet-nurses or Foster-mothers 


§ 194. Ifa man gives his son unto a nurse and his son dies in the hands of 
the nurse and the nurse substitutes another child without the consent of the 
father or the mother, they shall prosecute her; because she substituted another 
child without the consent of his father or his mother they shall cut off her breast. 


This law also is without Biblical parallel. 


Assault and Battery 


§ 195. Ifason strikes his father, they shall cut off his hand. 
2 196. If a man destroys the eye of the son of a patrician, they shall destroy 

s eye. 

§ 197. If he breaks a man’s bone, they shall break his bone. 

§ 198. If one destroys the eye of a workingman or breaks the bone of a 
workingman, he shall pay 1 mana of silver. 

§ 199. If one destroys the eye of a man’s slave or breaks the bone of a man’s 
slave, he shall pay half his value. 

§ 200. Ifa man knocks out the tooth of a man of his own rank, they shall 
knock his tooth out. 

oN ao If one knocks out the tooth of a workingman, he shall pay } of a mana 

of silver. 

§ 202. If a man shall strike the private-parts of a man who is of higher rank 
than he, he shall receive sixty blows with an ox-hide scourge in the assembly. 

§ 203. If a patrician strikes the private-parts of a patrician of his own rank, 
he shall pay 1 mana of silver. 

§ 204. If a workingman strikes the private-parts of a workingman, he shall 
pay 10 shekels of silver. 

§ 205. If the slave of a patrician strikes the private-parts of the son of a 
patrician, they shall cut off his ear. 


HAMMURAPI AND THE PENTATEUCH 361 


§ 206. If a man strikes a man in a quarrel and wounds him, he shall swear, 
“T did not strike with intent,” and shall pay for the physician. 

§ 207. If from the stroke he dies, he shall swear [as above], and if it was a 
patrician, he shall pay 3 mana of silver. 

§ 208. If it was a workingman, he shall pay 3 of a mana of silver. 

§ 209. If a man strikes a man’s daughter and causes a miscarriage, he shall 
pay 10 shekels of silver for her miscarriage. 

§ 210. If that woman dies, they shall put his daughter to death. 

§ 211. If through a stroke one causes a miscarriage of the daughter of a 
workingman, he shall pay 5 shekels of silver. 

§ 212. If that woman dies, he shall pay } mana of silver. 

§ 213. If one strikes the slave-girl of a man and causes a miscarriage, he shall 
pay 2 shekels of silver. 

§ 214. Ifthat slave-girl dies, he shall pay 3 of a mana of silver. 


These laws are strikingly parallel to Exod. 21 : 18-27, to which 
Exod. 21 : 12-14 should be prefixed. The Babylonian code, like 
the Hebrew, imposes the death penalty for wilful murder. Both 
codes provide that one who is an accidental homicide shall escape 
the penalty, but they do it in different ways. Hammurapi pro- 
vides that the killer may take an oath that he did it without intent 
to kill. Exod. 21:13, 14 provides that the homicide may find 
sanctuary at the altar of God. In place of this Deut. 19:4, ff., 
provides that he may flee to a city of refuge. 

If a man injures another in a fight, the Bible (Exod. 21 : 18, 19) 
provides that he shall pay for the lost time and, as does Hammu- 
rapi, the cost of healing the injured man. Exod. 21: 22 provides, as 
does Hammurapi, for the payment of a fine for causing a woman to 
miscarry, but Exodus does not, like the Babylonian code, fix the 
amount of the damage; that is left to the judges. In the laws con- 
cerning the injury of slaves the two codes differ. Exodus provides 
(21 : 20, 21, 26, 27) for cases in which owners injure or kill their 
own slaves; Hammurapi, for cases in which the injury is done by 
others. A mere reading of the penalties imposed by the parts of the 
Babylonian code translated above impresses vividly upon the mind 
the fact that underlying many of them is the principle so forcibly 
expressed in Exod. 21 : 21-25: “‘life for life, eye for eye, tooth for 
tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for 
wound, stripe for stripe.”’ The details of application are different, 
but the principle is the same. Many of the differences were caused 
by the more complex nature of Babylonian society, in which three 
classes, patricians, workingmen (or semi-serfs), and slaves, existed. 
Hebrew law recognizes but two classes—freemen and slaves. 


362 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Physicians 


§ 215. Ifa physician operates upon a man for a severe wound with a bronze 
lancet and saves the man’s life, or if he operates for cataract with a bronze lancet 
and saves the man’s eye, he shall receive 10 shekels of silver. 

§ 216. If it is a workingman, he shall receive 5 shekels of silver. 

§ 217. If it isa man’s slave, the owner of the slave shall give the physician 2 
shekels of silver. 

§ 218. Ifa physician operates upon a man with a bronze lancet for a severe 
wound, and the man dies; or operates upon a man. with a bronze lancet for 
cataract and the man’s eye is destroyed, they shall cut off his hand. 

§ 219. Ifa physician operates with a bronze lancet upon the slave of a work- | 
ingman and causes his death, he shall restore a slave. of equal value. 

§ 220. If he operates for cataract with a bronze lancet. and destroys his eye, 
he shall pay % his price. 

§ 221. Ifa physician sets a broken bone for a man or has cured of sickness 
inflamed flesh, the patient shall pay 5 shekels of silver to the physician. 

§ 222. If he is a workingman, he shall give 3 shekels of silver. 

§ 223. If he is the slave of a. patrician, the owner of the slave shall give 3 
shekels of silver to the physician. 

§ 224. If an ox-doctor or an ass-doctor treats an ox or an ass for a severe 
wound and saves its, life, the owner of the ox or the ass shall pay to the physician 
% of a shekel of silver as his fee. 

§ 225. If he operates upon an ox or an ass for a severe wound and it dies, he 
shall give unto the owner of the ox or the ass ¢ of its value. 


These laws about physicians have no parallel in the Old Testa- 
ment, the laws of which did not take account of the existence of 
doctors. They are of interest, since they show the antiquity of 
physicians in Babylonia, not only for men, but for animals. They 
also reveal the fact that the practice of medicine in Babylonia was 
attended by some risks! 

Herodotus (I, 197) declares that the Babylonians had no physi- 
cians, but brought their sick out into the streets and asked of each 
passer-by whether he had had a like sickness and what he had done 
for it. Possibly, as among ourselves, there were many who did not 
wish to incur the expense of a doctor, and who did as Herodotus 
reports, but these laws, and the existence of physicians at Nineveh 
at the time of the later Assyrian kings, make it probable that 
Herodotus was wrong as to their non-existence at Babylon in his 
day. 

Laws of Branding 


§ 226. If a brander without the consent of the owner of a slave cuts a mark 
on a slave, making him unsalable, they shall cut off the hands of that brander. _ 

§ 227. Ifaman deceives a brander and he brands a slave with a mark, making 
him unsalable, they shall put that man to death and cause him to perish in the 
gate of his house. The brander shall swear: ‘I did not brand him knowingly” 
and shall go free. 


HAMMURAPI AND THE PENTATEUCH 363 


These laws have no parallel in the Old Testament. Evidently the 
simpler organization of Hebrew society made them unnecessary. 


Responsibility of House-builders 


§ 228. Ifa builder builds a house for a man and completes it, he shall give 
him as his wages 2 shekels of silver for each Shar of house. 

§ 229. If a builder builds'a house for a man and does not make its work 
strong and the house which he made falls and causes the death of the owner of 
the house, that builder shall be put to death. 

§ 230. If it causes the death of the son of the owner, the son of that builder 
shall be put to death. 

§ 231. Ifit causes the death of a slave of the owner of the house, a slave like 
the slave he shall give to the owner of the house. 

§ 232. If it destroys property, he shall restore whatever was destroyed, and 
because he did not build the house strong and it fell, he shall rebuild the house 
that fell from his own property. 

§ 233. If a builder builds a house for a man and does not make his work 
strong and a wall falls, that builder shall strengthen that wall at his own expense. 


These laws have no parallel in the Bible. Among the agricul- 
tural population of Palestine builders were not a separate class. 
The penalties inflicted by the Babylonian code were severe, and yet, 
if modern legislators would put upon the house-builders of our time 
a similar responsibility for good work, fewer lives would be sacri- 
ficed by falling buildings. 


Responsibility of Boatmen 


§ 234. If a boatman builds a boat of 60 Gur for a man, he shall give him 2 
shekels of silver as his wages. 

'§ 235. Ifa boatman builds a boat for a man and does not make his work 
sound and in that year the boat is sent on a voyage and meets with disaster, that 
boatman shall repair that boat and from his own goods shall make it strong and 
shall give the boat in sound condition to the owner of the boat. 

§ 236. Ifa man gives his boat to a boatman for hire and the boatman is care- 
less and sinks or wrecks the boat, the boatman shall restore a boat to the owner 
of the boat. 

§ 237. If aman hires a boatman and a boat and loads it with grain, wool, 
oil, dates, or any other kind of freight, and that boatman is careless and sinks the 
boat or destroys its freight, the boatman shall replace the boat and whatever 
there was in it which he destroyed. 

§ 238. Ifa boatman sinks a man’s boat and re-floats it, he shall give money 
for 3 its value. 

§ 239. Ifa man hires a boatman, he shall give him 6 Gur of grain a year. 


The Hebrews were not a maritime people, and had no such laws 
as these or the following. 


364 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


The Collision of Ships 


§ 240. If a boat that is floating downstream strikes a boat that is being 
towed and sinks it, the owner of the boat that was sunk shall declare in the 
presence of a god everything that was in that boat and [the owner] of the boat 
floating downstream, which sunk the boat that was being towed, shall replace the 
boat and whatever was lost. 


There is, naturally, nothing similar to this in the Old Testament. 


Laws Concerning Cattle 


§ 241. If a man levies a distraint upon an ox as security for debt, he shall 
pay 3 of a mana of silver. 

§ 242. Ifa man hires for a year, the wages of a working ox is 4 Gur of grain. 

§ 243. The hire of a milch cow,,.3 Gur of grain for a year he shall give. 

§ 244. If a man hires an ox or an ass and a lion kills it in the field, the loss 
falls on the owner. 

§ 245. If aman hires an ox and causes its death through neglect or blows, he 
shall restore to the owner an ox of equal value. 

§ 246. Ifa man hires an ox and crushes its foot or cuts the cord of its neck, 
he shall restore to the owner an ox of like value. 

§ 247. Ifa man hires an ox and destroys its eye, he shall pay to the owner of 
the ox money to 3 its value. 

§ 248. Ifaman hires an ox and breaks off its horn, or cuts off its tail or injures 
the flesh which holds the ring, money to } of its value he shall pay. 

§ 249. Ifia man hires an ox and a god strikes it and it dies, the man who hires 
the ox shall take an oath in the presence of a god and shall go free. 

§ 250. If an ox when passing along the street gores a man and causes his 
death, there is no penalty in that case. 

§ 251. If the ox of a man has the habit of goring and they have informed him 
of his fault and his horns he has not protected nor kept his ox in, and that ox 
gores a man and causes his death, the owner of the ox shall pay } mana of money. 

§ 252. Ifitis the slave of a man, he shall pay 3 of a mana of money. 

§ 253. Ifa man hires a man and puts him over his field and furnishes him 
with seed-grain and intrusts him with oxen and contracts with him to cultivate 
the field, if that man steals the seed-grain or the crop and it is found in his 
possession, they shall cut off his hands. 

§ 254. If he takes the seed-grain, but enfeebles the cattle, from the grain 
which he has cultivated he shall make restoration. 

§ 255. If he shall let the cattle to a man for hire, or steal the seed-grain so 
that there is no crop, they shall prosecute that man, and he shall pay 60 Gur 
of grain for each Gan. 

§ 256. If he is not able to meet his obligation, they shall tear him in pieces 
in that field by means of the oxen. 


The Biblical legislation corresponding to this is found in Exod. 
21 : 28-35, but it covers only a portion of the cases of which the 
Babylonian law treats. It provides that, if an ox gores a man or a 
woman to death, the ox shall be stoned. If the ox was wont to 
gore and the owner had not kept it in, but it had been permitted to 
kill a man or a woman, the owner as well as the ox should be stoned. 
At the discretion of the tribunal a fine or ransom might be laid on 


HAMMURAPI AND THE PENTATEUCH 365 


the owner. In case the ox gored a slave, the owner of the ox was to 
pay 30 shekels of silver and the ox was to be stoned. If a man 
opened a pit and a neighbor’s ox or ass fell into it, the digger of the 
pit must make good the loss to the owner of the animal, and the 
dead beast became the property of the digger of the pit. If one 
man’s ox killed the ox of another man, the two men were to sell 
the live ox and divide the price. If it were known that the ox was 
wont to gore in the past, and its owner had not kept it in, he was to 
pay ox for ox, and the dead animal should be his. 

It thus appears that the exigencies of Hebrew agricultural life 
were different from those of Babylonia, and were naturally met in 
different ways. 

Wages of Laborers 


§ 257. Ifa man hires a field-laborer, he shall pay him 8 Gur of grain per year. 
§ 258. Ifa man hires a herdsman, he shall pay him 6 Gur of grain per year. 


Hebrew law did not regulate wages. 


On Stealing Farming-tools 


§ 259. Ifa man steals a watering-machine from a field, he shall pay to the 
owner of the watering-machine 5 shekels of silver. 
a. 260. If a man steals a watering-bucket or a plow, he shall pay 3 shekels of 
silver. 


As the Hebrews did not systematically irrigate their land, the 
Old Testament contains no similar laws. 


Laws Concerning Shepherds 


§ 261. Ifa man hires a herdsman to tend cattle or sheep, he shall pay him 8 
Gur of grain per year. 
§ 262. Ifa man, oxen, or sheep.............. 


(The rest is broken away.) 


§ 263. If he loses an ox or a sheep that is intrusted to him, he shall restore 
ox for ox and sheep for sheep. 

§ 264. If a herdsman who has had cattle or sheep intrusted to him receives 
his full pay and is satisfied, and he causes the cattle or the sheep to diminish in 
number or lessens the birth-rate, he shall give increase and produce according 
to his contracts. 

§ 265. If a shepherd to whom cattle or sheep have been given to tend is dis- 
honest and alters the price or sells them, they shall prosecute him, and he shall 
restore to their owner 10 times the oxen or sheep which he stole. 

§ 266. If in a fold there is a pestilence of a god, or a lion has slain, the shep- 
herd shall before a god declare himself innocent, and the owner of the fold shall 
bear the loss of the fold. 

§ 267. If the shepherd is careless and causes a loss in the fold, the shepherd 
shall make good in cattle or sheep the loss which he caused in the fold and shall 
give them to the owner. 


366 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


The nearest approach in the Old Testament to laws of this char- 
acter is in Exod. 22 : 10-13, which provides that, if a man deliver to 
his neighbor an ox, or ass, or sheep, or any beast to keep, and it 
dies, or is injured or is carried off when no one sees the deed, the 
oath of Jehovah shall be between them that the keeper has not put 
his hand to his neighbor’s goods. The owner was to accept this, 
and no-restitution was necessary. If the animals were stolen from 
the keeper, he must make restitution. If they were torn in pieces 
by beasts of prey, he must bring the pieces for witness, and need not 
make restitution. 

The same general principles of the limits of responsibility under- 
lay the two codes in these cases, though they differ in details. In 
Israel the shepherding of the flocks and herds of other people was 
not, as in Babylonia, a distinct occupation. 


On Wages of Animals and Men 


§ 268. Ifa man hires an ox for threshing, 20 Qa of grain is its hire. 

§ 269. If he hires an ass for threshing, 10 Qa of grain is its hire. 

§ 270. If he hires a kid for threshing, 1 Qa of grain is its hire. 

§ 271. If he hires cattle, a wagon and a driver, he shall pay 180 Qa of grain 
per day. 

§ 272. Ifa man hires a wagon only, he shall pay 40 Qa of grain per day. 

§ 273. Ifa man hires a field-laborer from the beginning of the year until the 
fifth month, he shall pay him 6 She of.silver per day; from the sixth month to the 
end of the year, 5 She of silver per day he shall pay. 

§ 274. Ifa man hires an artisan, he shall give per day as the wages of a..... 
5 She; as the wages of a brick-maker, 5 She of money; as the wages of a tailor, 5 


She of silver; as the wages of a stone-cutter,...... Ske of silvers. She 
Of silver? Gosia ease Ske Of silvers 3... ooee of a carpenter, 4 She of silver; 
as the wages of a...... 4 She of silver; as the wages of a...... She of silver; 


the wages of a builder, ...... She of silver. 


§ 275. Ifa man hires a boat (?) to go upstream (?), its hire is 3 She of silver 
per day. 


§ 276. If he hires a boat to float downstream, he shall pay as its hire 24 She 
of silver per day. 


§ 277. Ifa man hires a boat of 60 Gur burden, he shall pay 4 of a shekel of 
money per day. 


There are no parallels to these laws in the Bible, as the Old Testa- 
ment does not attempt to regulate prices. When one considers the 
customs of trade all over the Orient, and the time fruitlessly con- 
sumed in making bargains, one does not wonder that the practical 
sovereign of a great commercial people, such as the Babylonians 
were, should regulate prices by law. Asa rule, to this day, a pur- 
chaser begins by offering only a fraction of what he is willing to 
give, and the seller by asking at least twice as much as he is will- 


HAMMURAPI AND THE PENTATEUCH 367 


ing to take. A long psychological battle follows, during which there 
are many victories and capitulations on each side. This law was 
designed to put an end to this time-consuming custom. 


When the Sales of Slaves are Void 


§ 278. Ifa man buys a male or a female slave and before a month is past he 
has an attack of rheumatism (?), he shall return to the seller, and the purchaser 
shall receive back the money that was paid. 

§ 279. If aman buys a male or a female slave, and another has a legal claim 
upon him, the seller shall be responsible for that claim. 

§ 280. Ifa man, while in a foreign country, purchases a male or a female 
slave of a man, and, when he returns home, the former owner of the male or the 
female slave recognizes his slave, if that male or female slave is a native of the 
land, he shall give it its freedom without recompense. 

§ 281. If they are natives of another country, the purchaser shall declare in 
the presence of a god the price that he paid, and the former owner of the male or 
female slave shall pay the price to the merchant, and shall receive back his slave. 


No laws similar to these are found in the Old Testament. 


The Penalty for Renouncing a Master 


§ 282. Ifa slave shall say to his owner: “Thou art not my owner,” they shall 
make him submit as his slave, and shall cut off his ear. 


This penalty reminds one of the boring of a slave’s ear (Exod. 
21 : 6; Deut. 15 : 17) in token of perpetual slavery. 


2. The Mosaic Code not Borrowed from the Babylonian; Dif- 

ferent Underlying Conceptions. 

A comparison of the code of Hammurapi as a whole with the 
Pentateuchal laws as a whole, while it reveals certain similarities, 
convinces the student that the laws of the Old Testament are in no 
essential way dependent upon the Babylonian laws. Such resem- 
blances as there are arose, it seems clear, from a similarity of ante- 
cedents and of general intellectual outlook; the striking differences 
show that there was no direct borrowing. The primitive Semitic 
custom of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth (Exod. 21 : 24; 
Lev. 24 : 20; Deut. 19 : 21) is made the basis of many penalties in 
the Babylonian code. (See §§ 196, 197, 200, 229, 230, etc.) The 
principle underlying it is found also in many other sections. These 
similarities only show that Babylonia had a large Semitic element in 
its population. Again, Hammurapi pictured himself at the top of 
the pillar on which these laws are written as receiving them from 
the sun-god (Fig. 292). The Bible tells us that Moses received the 


368 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


laws of the Pentateuch from Jehovah. ‘The whole attitude of the 
two documents is, however, different. Hammurapi, in spite of the 
picture, takes credit, both in the prologue and in the epilogue of his 
code, for the laws. He, not Shamash, established justice in the 
land. Moses, on the other hand, was only the instrument; the 
legislation stands as that of Jehovah himself. 

This difference appears also in the contents of the two codes. 
The Pentateuch contains many ritual regulations and purely relig- 
ious laws, while the code of Hammurapi is purely civil. As has 
been already pointed out, the code of Hammurapi is adapted to the 
land of the rivers, and to a highly civilized commercial people, while 
the Biblical laws are intended for a dry land like Palestine, and for 
an agricultural community that was at a far less advanced stage of 
commercial and social development. 

Religion is, however, not a matter of social advancement only. 
In all that pertains to religious insight the Pentateuch is far in ad- 
vance of Hammurapi’s laws. 


On ee ae ee Se 


Se eee 


CHAPTER XIV 
A HITTITE CODE OF LAWS! 


Hittite Laws with Comparison oF BIBLICAL AND BABYLONIAN LAWS. 


THE following code of laws was inscribed on some tablets con- 
tained in the archive found at Boghaz Koi or Hittite-city. It 
comes from the time of the great Hittite dynasty which ruled 
there, though we do not know the name of the king under whom 
it was adopted and put in force. It seems probable, however, 
that it was either the powerful Shubbiluliuma or his son Mursil 
(Murshilish). If this conjecture is correct the code dates from 
about 1350 B. c. 

We are still in the early stages of the study of the Hittite language 
and we cannot too strongly emphasize the fact that any translation 
from Hittite is largely tentative. In reading these pages this 
should be borne in mind. 


Assault and Battery 


§ 1. If anyone intentionally kills a man or a woman, that one shall bring 
and give 4 persons,” either male or female, and for the future he is free. 

§ 2. If anyone intentionally kills a slave or a slave-girl, that one shall bring 
and give 2 persons, either male or female, and for the future he is free. 

§ 3. If anyone wounds a free man or a free woman and that one dies, whoso- 
ever’s hand wounded him, that one shall bring and give 2 persons and for the 
future he is free. : weet : ; 

§ 4. If anyone wounds a slave or a slave-girl and it dies, wounding him ac- 
cidentally,’ that one shall bring and give 1 person and for the future he is free. 

§ 5. If anyone kills a merchant of Hittite-city he shall give 100 Manas of 
silver and for the future he is free; if it is in the territory of the city Luyya or 
the city Pala, he shall give 100 Manas of silver and restore his possessions; 
if in the territory of Hittite-city, then he shall bring the same. ; 

§ 6. Ifa person, either man or woman, dies in the city, 100 rods of culti- 
vated land near where he dies shall pay the damages. : 

§ 7. If anyone strikes a free man and knocks out some of his teeth, formerly 
he paid 1 Mana of silver; now he shall pay 20 shekels of silver and for the future 
he is free. 

§ 8. If one strikes a slave or a slave-girl and knocks out some teeth, he shall 
pay 10 shekels of silver and for the future he is free. 


1 The text is published by Hrozny in Keilschrifttexte aus Boghazkoi, V1; it is translated by the 
same scholar in Code Hittite provenani de l’ Asie Mineur, Paris, 1922; also Hethitische Gesetse aus 
dem Staatsarchiv von Boghazkoi, unter mitwirkung von Dr. Johannes Friedrich, iibersetz von 
Dr. Heinrich Zimmern, Professor in Leipzig, Leipzig, 1922; (a translation of a part only). 

2 Apparently the ‘‘persons” so given were slaves. 

3 Literally, “by his hand.” 


369 


370 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


§ 9. If anyone strikes a person on the head, he shall pay 6 shekels of silver; 
for the blow he shall give 3 shekels; to the palace he shall give 3 shekels. Should 
the king of the palace forgive him, then he shall give 3 shekels to the one struck. 

§ 10. If anyone strikes a person and there are consequences, then that one 
shall make restitution (?): he shall pay the man for it: this one shall be in his 
house while he is convalescing; after he has recovered, then he shall give him 6 
shekels of silver and the doctor’s bill and business-loss he pays. 

§ 11. If anyone breaks the hand or foot of a free man, then he shall pay 20 
shekels and for the future he is free. 

§ 12. If anyone breaks the hand or foot of a slave or a slave-girl, he shall 
give 10 shekels of silver and for the future he is free. 

§ 13. If anyone breaks the nose of a free man, he shall give 1 Mana of silver 
and for the future he is free. . 

§ 14. If anyone breaks the nose of a slave or a slave-girl, he shall give 3 
shekels of silver and for the future he is free. 

§ 15. If anyone cuts off the ear of a free man, he shall pay 12 shekels of 
silver and for the future he is free. 

§ 16. If anyone cuts off the ear of a slave or of a slave-girl, he shall give 
3 shekels of silver and for the future he is free. 

§ 17. If anvone causes a pregnant free woman to miscarry, if it is nine 
months; if it is ten months, he shall give 10 shekels of silver; if it is five months, 
he shall give 5 shekels of silver and for the future he is free. 

§ 18. If one causes a pregnant slave-girl to miscarry, if it is ten months, he 
shall give 5 shekels of silver. 


These laws correspond in subject-matter to §§195-214 of the 
Code of Hammurapi. No corresponding laws of the Assyrians 
have as yet been recovered. 

One interesting feature is the provision permitting a murderer to 
compound his crime by giving 4 or 2 persons in place of the murdered 
one. This shows that the Hittites had no ancient custom of blood- 
revenge such as lay back of both Hebrews and Babylonians. The 
nature of the penalties for personal injuries, such as knocking out 
another’s tooth, shows also the absence of any law like the Semitic 
lex talionis, which is so prominent in the penalties in the Code of 
Hammurapi and in the Pentateuch, by which the injured inflicted 
an equal injury upon the person who had harmed him. 


Laws Concerning Slaves 


_ § 19. If.any man of the city of Luyya steals a person, either man or woman, 
in Hittite-city and delivers him to a master in Arzuvva and he escapes (?), 
he shall return to his house again. If in the town of Hattushash a man of Hittite- 
city steals a man of Luyya and in Luyya gives him (to a master)—formerly 
12 persons he gave, but now he shall give 6 persons and for the future he is free. 

§ 20. If any man of Hittite-city steals a slave of a man of Hittite-city from 
the territory of the city of Luyya and brings it to the territory of Hittite-city, 
should his master find (?) him, then he shall pay 12 shekels of silver, and for 
the future he is free. 

§ 21. If anyone steals a slave of a man of the city of Luyya from the terri- 
tory of the city of Luyya and brings him to the territory of Hittite-city, should 


A HITTITE CODE OF LAWS 371 


his master find (?) him, then he shall give him his slave; he shall pay no com- 
pensation. 

§ 22. If a slave runs away and afterward anyone restores him; if a mer- 
chant caught him and gave him leather shoes, if it was on this side the river, 
he shall give 2 shekels of silver; if it was on the other side of the river, he shall 
give 3 shekels of silver. 


These laws should be compared to §§ 14—20 of the Code of Ham- 
murapi and the Pentateuchal laws cited in that connection on pages 
342, 343. It will be noted that the Hittite laws are adapted to 
the local political conditions, and that slaves had in Hittite-city 
in the fourteenth century B. c. a higher monetary value than they 
did in Babylonia seven hundred years earlier. 


A Law Against Using Another’s Cooking Utensils 


§ 25. If a person cooks in a pot or a basin (?), he shall give 6 shekels of 
silver; to him whose it was, he shall give 3 shekels and to the palace 3 shekels. 
If the king of the palace forgives it, he shall give 3 shekels to him whose it was, 
and for the future-he is free. 


This law is without parallel in the other codes. 


Laws of Marriage 


§ 28. If a maiden is betrothed to a man and another marries her, then 
afterwards the first man desires it, they shall restore her; should the father 
and mother not restore her, if the father and mother gave her to another man, 
then the father and mother shall restore her. If the father and mother refuse, 
then this one may take her away (?). 

§ 29. If a woman is bound to a man and he has paid the bride-price, and 
the father and mother afterward think ill of it and take her away from that 
man, then they shall return to him double the bride-price. 

§ 30. If a man does not take a woman and refuses, then the bride-price 
which he had paid he shall lose. 

§ 31. Ifa man buys a slave-girl and is pleased with her and takes her for 
his wife and she bears children in his house, and afterward they get on badly 
and quarrel, they shall divide the house between them: the man shall take 
the children and the woman shall take 1 child. 

§ 32. Ifaslave takes a (free) woman, their law is the same. 


372 ARCHASOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


§ 33. Ifa slave takes a slave-girl, their law is the same. 

§ 34. If a slave pays the bride-price for a woman and takes her to his 
house, no one shall afterward take her away. 

§ 35. Ifa jeweller (?) or a shepherd takes a free woman and does not pay 
the bride-price, then he shall serve as a slave for three years. 

§ 36. Ifa slave pays the bride-price for a free girl and as a husband lives 
with her, no one shall afterward take her away. 


These laws should be compared with §§ 128-161 of the Code of 
Hammurapi and the corresponding laws of the Pentateuch dis- 
cussed in connection with them. It will be observed that the laws 
of the Hittites are much more brief and provide for fewer con- 
tingencies than those of the Babylonian code. They are the laws 
of a people who had back of them a shorter civilized experience. 
The underlying principles of justice are the same in both codes. 
They are principles approved by the universal conscience of man- 
kind. The light which these laws shed upon the condition of slaves 
among the Hittites is interesting. They could apparently accu- 
mulate property for themselves, gain money with which to pay the 
bride-price for a wife, marry a free woman, and enjoy rights 
guaranteed by law. 


Laws Concerning Bandits 


§ 37. If anyone espouses a woman and afterwards a bandit attacks them 
and two men or three men are killed, there is no penalty; “thou owest nothing 
to a bandit.” 

§ 38. If persons are on the way to a tribunal (?) and a bandit attacks them 
and they defend themselves with clubs and sticks, and wound the bandit 
severely and he dies, there is no penalty in that case. 


One gains the impression from these laws that they had grown 
out of recent experience and were shaped to fit the incidents of 
such experience. Those who framed these sections of the code had 
not sought out the underlying principles so as to make the legis- 
lation fit many cases. They should be compared with §§ 21-25 
of the Code of Hammurapi. 


Concerning Leased Land and Feudal Holdings 


§ 39. If (a man) takes the fields of another to cultivate (?) and another 
offers him the fields near, he shall not cultivate (?) them. 

40. If a warrior disappears and a land-superintendent comes and says: 
“This is my military-holding and my farm” and shall appropriate the field 
of the soldier, and the duty of the soldier, he shall take and carry on the agri- 
cultural work. If he refuses the military duty, he shall vacate the farm and 
lose the holding of the soldier and the men of the city shall cultivate it. If the 
ae shall grant it to a prisoner of war, they shall give it to him and he shall 
cultivate it. 


A HITTITE CODE OF LAWS 373 


§ 41. If a land-superintendent disappears and (another) land-superin- 
tendent comes and as a soldier says, “This is my military-holding and this is 
my farm,” and shall appropriate the field of the land-superintendent, then he 
shall assume the military duty. If he refuses the military duty, they shall 
give the holding to the palace and it shall take the holding. 


These laws should be compared to §§ 26-41 of the Code of 
Hammurapi. Possibly the “‘land-superintendent” of the Hittites 
may have performed some function kindred to those of the “tax- 
collectors” of the Babylonians. In any event their holding of 
lands, like that of the soldiers, appears to have been an assignment 
from the public land and such assignment imposed certain obliga- 
tions of service to the state. 


Concerning Losses and Damages 


§ 42. If anyone hires a man and sends him to irrigate (?) and he dies, 
he shall pay his wages, but there is no penalty. If he does not pay in wages, 
he shall give 1 person. He shall give 12 shekels of silver as wages; the wages 
of a woman are 6 shekels of silver. 

§ 43. Ifa man is making his bullock ford a river and another brings it out, 
then he may take the tail of the bullock. If the bullock crosses the river, but 
the owner of the bullock is drowned, then he may take the bullock. 

§ 44. If at a fire anyone pulls a man out and he [i. ¢., the rescuer] dies, he 
[z. e., the rescued] shall give a son in his stead; if anyone raises a man up, he 
shall receive a suitable reward; if it is in a man’s field or courtyard he shall 
receive it; the amount is for the king’s court (to determine). 

§ 45. If anyone takes tools, and that one shall afterward return them to 
the owner, he shall give him freedom; if he does not return them, he may take 
him prisoner. 


There is no exact parallel to these laws in the other codes. § 42 
may be compared to §§ 257, 258 of the Code of Hammurapi, but 
the only likeness is that both codes mention the wages of laborers; 
the laws themselves are quite different. § 44 may be compared with 
§ 25 of the Babylonian code; that, however, relates to stealing ata 
fire, while this relates to rescuing one from the fire. § 45, like 
§§ 259, 260 of the Babylonian code, legislates concerning the steal- 
ing of tools, but the two codes treat the matter in quite different 
ways. § 43 is without parallel in the other codes. 


Another Group of Laws Relating to Land 


§ 46. If in a village anyone takes some fields as a holding and they are 
given entirely to him, he shall perform the duty of the fields. Ifa portion of 
the field is given to him, the duty he need not perform, but only the duty to 
his father’s house. If he takes the field of a lord with military duty, or the 
men of the village give him fields, he shall perform the duty. 

§ 47. If anyone received a field as a present from the king and does not 
perform the duty, the king may take bread from his table and give it to him. 


374 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


If one acquires a field from a man of arms, the duty of the field he shall per- 
form. If he acquires only a considerable portion of the field, he shall not 
perform the duty. If he receives the field on condition of military service or 
if the chief men give it (to him), he shall perform the duty. 

§ 48. An irrigator shall perform his service, but where an irrigator does 
no work, none of the men of the plantation may take his vineyard. He who 
does the work for the irrigator he shall have (the fruits) of his labor, but he 
[the irrigator] shall go empty-handed. The irrigator who works shall after- 
ward receive. 

§ 49. If an irrigator steals, he shall receive no compensation. If he is in 
a company, then the company shall make restitution. When all are caught 
stealing, then one may punish all or take them prisoners; then he who took this 
one, he who took that one shall send him to the prison of the king. 


It appears that Hittite land was held either by the king or by 
cities and was granted to individuals on condition of certain mili- 
tary services to the state. We have nothing in Babylonian or 
Hebrew law quite parallel to this; the nearest approach to it is the 
land granted in Babylonia to soldiers, constables, and tax-gatherers 
already referred to. Compare the Code of Hammurapi, §§ 26-41. 


Classes Exempt from Military Service 


5 SOM Tae aes men who live in the town of Nirik, who live in Arinna, 
who live in Ziplanda, the priests in every village—their houses are free and 
their associates shall perform the duty. If one lives in the town of Arinna 
eleven months, then his house, the oil house of which is enclosed, is free. 

§ 51. Moreover, he who in Arinna is a weaver and whose house was free 
and whose associates and people were free, now there is freedom for his house; 
his associates and people shall perform the duty for him. In the town of 
Zippalanda! it is similar. 

§ 52. Aslave of a stone house, the slave of a son of the king who is a holder 
of real-estate (?)—-any man at arms who destroys his fields shall perform the 
duty for him. 

§ 53. Ifa man at arms and his associates, being banded together, do evil 
and share their house; if there are 10 persons in their establishment, the men at 
arms including 7 persons and the associates including 3 persons, the cattle 
and sheep of their establishment they shall share in proportion. If anyone 
receives by deed a grant from the king and they had previously divided their 
fields, the men at arms shall take two-thirds of the grant and the associates 
shall take one-third. 

§ 54. Moreover, the Scythian soldiers, the Shala soldiers, soldiers of the 
city Tamalki, soldiers of the city Khatra, soldiers of the city Zalpa, soldiers 
of the city Tashkhina, soldiers of the city Khemuwa, archers, carpenters, work- 
o in wood, and principal men shall neither perform the duty nor execute the 

uty. 

§ 55. When the inhabitants of Hattushash come and pray the father? of 
the king and say, “Since no one has paid our allowance”; they say, ““We are 
superintendents of land”; the father of the king shall say in the assembly: 
“Go, then, take possession; since you are land-holders, be such.” 


1So spelled here; but compare § 50. 
2 The vizier or prime minister was called ‘father”; cf. Pt. II, Ch. 10, p. 329. 


A HITTITE CODE OF LAWS 375 


§ 56. Should one be under obligation to fortress-duty during a military 
expedition of the king and under obligation to work a vineyard (he who is a 
metal-worker has no such obligation); the gardeners shall perform the service 
(of the garden). 


The land of the Hittites was, as we have seen, held in common. 
Those to whom the privilege of occupation was granted were sub- 
ject to certain military duties and were under certain obligations 
to produce crops. These laws define when these obligations did 
not hold and who were free from them. As the land systems of 
the Hebrews were different the codes of that people afford no ex- 
act parallels. In Israel the land was held in fee simple, though 
the owner, in case of war, was liable to military duty. It is, how- 
ever, provided in Deut. 20: 5-7 that those who had built new 
houses and had not lived in them, or planted vineyards of which 
they had not yet eaten fruit, or betrothed wives which they had 
not yet married, were exempt from such duty. The fact of exemp- 
tion was in both countries the same, but it was enjoyed by different 
classes and for different reasons. 


Against Stealing and Killing Domestic Animals 


§ 57. If anyone steals a full-grown bull (if it is half a year old it is not a 
full-grown bull; if it is a yearling bull, it is not a full-grown bull; if it is a bull 
two years old, this is a full-grown bull), heretofore he gave 20 cattle; but now 
15 cattle he may give; 5 two years old, 5 a year old, 5 half a year old he may 
give, and for the future he is free. 

§ 58. If anyone steals a full-grown horse (if it is half a year old, it is nota 
full-grown horse; if it is a yearling, it is not a full-grown horse; if it is two years 
old, this is a full-grown horse), heretofore he gave 30 horses; but now 15 horses 
he may give; 5 horses two years old, 5 horses a year old, 5 horses six months old 
he may give, and for the future he is free. 

§ 59. If anyone steals a ram, heretofore he gave 30 sheep, but now he may 
give 15 sheep; 5 wool-bearing ewes, 5 rams, 5 lambs he may give, and for the 
future he is free. 


On Taking Stray Cattle and Horses 


§ 60. If anyone finds a full-grown bullock and lifts it and its owner catches 
him, he shall give 7 cattle: 2 two years old, 3 one year old, 2 half a year old 
he shall give, and for the future he is free. 

§ 61. If anyone finds a full-grown horse and lifts it and its owner catches 
him, he shall give 7 horses: 2 two years old, 3 yearlings, and 2 half a year old, 
and for the future he is free. 

§ 62. If anyone finds a ram and lifts it, and its owner catches him, he 
shall give 7 sheep: 2 wool-bearing ewes, 3 rams, 2 lambs he shall give, and for 
the future he is free. 

§ 63. If anyone finds a plough-ox and steals him, then he shall give 15 
cattle, but 10 cattle he may give (as follows): 3 cattle two years old, 3 one year 
old, 4 half a year old he may give, and for the future he is free. 

If anyone steals a carriage-horse, the case is similar. 


376 ARCHAKOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


§ 65. If a full-grown creature, an uncastrated male, if a...... , an uncas- 
trated male, if a mountain ram, an uncastrated male anyone steals, the com- 
pensation is as for the full-grown creature; for this it is similar. 

§ 66. If a plough-ox, if a carriage-horse, if a cow, if an ass broken to the 
yoke wanders to the stable (of anyone); if a creature, an uncastrated male, if 
a wool-bearing sheep, if a ram wanders into the estate (of anyone) and its owner 
finds it and receives it in good condition, he shall do nothing to the man who 
detained it. 

§ 67. If anyone steals a cow, heretofore he gave 12 cattle, but now he 
shall give 6 cattle: 2 cattle 2 years old, 2 cattle 1 year old, 2 cattle six months 
old, and for the future he is free. 

§ 68. If anyone steals a mare broken to the harness, the case is similar. 

§ 69. If anyone steals a wool-bearing ewe or a ram, formerly he gave 12 
sheep, but now he shall give 6 sheep: 2 wool-bearing ewes, 2 rams, 2 lambs he 
shall give, and for the future he is free. 

§ 70. If anyone steals an ox, if a horse, if a mule, if an ass, and the owner 
takes it and receives it in good condition, he shall give twofold and for the 
future he shall go free. 

§ 71. If anyone finds an ox, a horse, or a mule, then he should drive it 
into the enclosure of the king; but if he finds it in the open country and sub- 
mits it to witnesses, he may harness it; if afterward the owner finds it and 
obtains it in good condition, he shall do nothing to the detainer. If he did not 
submit it to witnesses, then he may bind the detainer. 

-§ 72. If anyone kills an ox in a field, the owner of the field shall give 2 cattle 
and for the future he is free. 

§ 73. If anyone takes a living ox as a thief, then the case is similar. 

§ 74. If anyone breaks the aS of an ox or the foot of an ox, he shall 
keep that ox and shall give a sound ox to the owner of the ox. If the owner 
of the ox says, “I receive my ox,” he shall take his ox and he shall give him [the 
owner] 2 shekels of silver. 

§ 75. If anyone hitches up an ox, horse, mule, or ass and it dies, or a wolf 
attacks and takes it and afterward he recovers it entire, if he shall say: “By 
the act of a god it died,” then he shall swear. 

§ 76. If anyone rides an ox, horse, large mule or ass and it dies under him, 
he shall bring it and pay its hire. 

If anyone shall abuse a cow with calf and it casts the calf, he shall 
make restitution; he shall give 2 shekels of silver. If anyone abuses a mare 
with foal and it casts its foal, he shall make restitution; 2 shekels of silver he 
shall give. If anyone destroys the eye of an ox or a horse, he shall pay 6 shekels 
of silver and for the future he is free. 

§ 78. If anyone hires a horse and harness (?) or puts upon it saddle (?), 
he shall return it to its owner, and for 1 mount (?) shall give 1 (measure) of 
grain. 

§ 79. If cattle break into a field and the owner of the field finds them, he 
may hitch them up for 1 day; as soon as the stars appear he shall return them 
to the owner. 

§ 80. If anyone rescues a sheep from a wolf, the owner takes the meat, this 
one takes the sheep-skin. 

§ 81. If anyone steals a grain-fed hog, he formerly paid 1 mana of silver, 
but now he shall pay 12 shekels of silver and for the future he is free. 

§ 82. If anyone steals a rooting hog, he shall give 6 shekels of silver and for 
the future he is free. 

§ 83. If anyone steals a pregnant sow, he shall pay 6 shekels of silver and 
shall account for the little pigs: for 2 little pigs he shall give 20 qas [or 1 pa] 
of grain and for the future he is free. 


A HITTITE CODE OF LAWS oli 


§ 84. If anyone hurts a pregnant sow and she dies, the case is similar. 

§ 85. If anyone catches little pigs running wild and steals them, he shall 
give 20 qas [or 1 pa] of grain for 1 pair. 

§ 86. If a pig enters an open field, an irrigated field, or a garden, and the 
owner of the open field, irrigated field, or garden wounds it and it dies, then he 
shall return it to its owner; he shall pay nothing, but that one may make him 
a prisoner. 

ill If anyone wounds a shepherd’s dog and it dies, he shall pay 20 shekels 
of silver. 

§ 88. If anyone wounds a dog of a dog-raiser and it dies, he shall pay 12 
shekels of silver and for the future he is free. 

- 89. If anyone wounds a roaming dog and it dies, he shall pay 1 shekel of 
silver. 

§ 90. If a dog consumes lard and the owner of the lard catches it, kills it 
and takes the lard from its belly, there is no compensation. 

§ 91. If anyone steals bees in a hive, formerly he paid 1 mana of silver, 
now he shall pay 5 shekels of silver and for the future he is free. 

§ 92. If anyone steals 2 hives, if 3 hives, formerly he was caused to be 
stung to death by bees, but now he shall give 6 shekels of silver. If anyone 
steals one hive and there were no bees in it, he shall pay 3 shekels of silver. 


In the Code of Hammurapi we have no laws quite parallel to 
these. Perhaps the code once contained them, for they may have 
been in the portion which the Elamite erased. §$ 241-256 relate 
to cattle, but concern wages and injuries rather than theft. 

In Exodus 22 : 1-5 we have the Hebrew parallel. It is there or- 
dained that, if a man steals an ox or a sheep and sells it or kills it, 
he shall pay five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep. If the 
stolen property was found in his hand, he was to pay double, 
whether it was an ox, an ass, ora sheep. This is identical with the 
penalty imposed in § 70 of this code. Horses play no part in 
either Hebrew or Babylonian laws. They appear to have been 
brought into western Asia by the Hittites after the time of Ham- 
murapi, and were never generally used in Israel during the Biblical 
period. Swine were unclean to Semites and, although the Sume- 
rians domesticated them and even had a swine goddess, they do 
not appear either in the Code of Hammurapi or in the Pentateuch, 
except among the unclean animals prohibited to the Hebrews in 
Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. 

It is interesting to learn that the Hittites had domesticated the 
bee and that their laws protect private property in them. The 
other codes afford no parallel to these laws. Honey was known 
both to the Hebrews and Babylonians, but apparently they gathered 
it from wild bees. 


378 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Other Laws Against Theft 


§ 93. If one catches a free man in a storehouse after he has entered it, he 
shall pay 12 shekels of silver. If he catches a slave in a storehouse after he 
has entered it, he shall pay 6 shekels of silver. 

§ 94. If a free man commits theft in a house, he shall make restitution; 
formerly thieves paid 1 mana of silver, but now they shall pay 12 shekels of 
silver. If he has stolen much, much shall be exacted of him; if he has stolen 
little, little shall be exacted of him, and for the future he is free. 

§ 95. If a slave steals in a house he shall make restitution; the thief shall 
pay 6 shekels of silver and the nose and ears of the slave shall be cut off, and 
he shall make restitution; if he has stolen much, much shall be exacted of him; 
if he has stolen little, little shall be exacted of him. If his master says: “I 
will make restitution,” then he shall make restitution; if he refuses, then he 
shall deliver up the slave. 

§ 96. Ifa man steals grain in a granary and takes grain from the granary, 
he shall restore the grain to the granary and shall pay 12 shekels of silver, and 
for the future he is free. 

§ 97. If a slave steals from a granary and takes grain from the granary, 
he shall restore the grain to the granary and pay 6 shekels of silver, and for 
the future he is free. 


These laws against theft are based on the same principles as the 
laws which precede them. The king who put this code into opera- 
tion modified many punishments, making them more humane. 
The reader will have noticed how many times the phrase, “formerly 
the punishment was” so-and-so, “but now it shall be” so-and-so. 
In every such case the punishment is lightened. In § 95 the code 
for the first time permits mutilation. The nose and ears of a slave 
may be cut off. That section also throws interesting light on the 
limits of a master’s responsibility for a slave’s acts; he may or may 
not assume full responsibility for them as he chooses. 


Laws Relating to Fires - 


§ 98. Ifa free man lights fire in a house, and the house burns down and 
anything perishes in the house, be it human being, kine or sheep, such an one 
shall not make restitution. 

§ 99. Ifa slave lights a fire in a house, his master shall make restitution 
for him. The nose and ears of the slave shall be cut off and he be returned to 
his master. If he (the master) does not make restitution for him, then he 
shall deliver him (the slave) up. 

§ 100. If anyone burns a barn (?), he shall replace the grain that was in it 
and, after the winter he shall bring (materials) and restore the barn; he need 
not pay for straw, but the barn he burned. 


These laws relating to fire are more elaborate than either those 
of the Hebrews or the Babylonians. The one law about fire in the 
Pentateuch (Ex. 22 : 6) refers to the accidental burning of stand- 
ing grain. In dry Palestine that might easily happen, but the 


A HITTITE CODE OF LAWS 379 


houses there were of stone and, except in time of war, destructive 
fires were almost unknown. 

The one law about fire in the Code of Hammurapi (§ 25) refers 
to stealing goods that have been removed from a burning house. 
Babylonian houses were of brick and fires were apparently not so 
common as among the Hittites. Perhaps the Hittite houses were 
more often constructed of wood. 


Horticultural Laws 


§ 101. If anyone steals some vines, apple (?) trees, pear (?) trees, or onions, 
formerly he paid...... shekel of silver for 1 vine, 1 shekel of silver for one 
apple (?) tree,...... shekel of silver for 1 pear (?) tree,...... shekel of silver 
for 1 measure (?) of onions, and was scourged with the rod in the palace; formerly 
they proceeded thus, but now, if one is a free man, he shall pay 6 shekels of 
silver; if he is a slave, he shall pay 3 shekels of silver. 

§ 102. If anyone steals from a wood-pile, if it is 1 talent of wood, he shall 
pay 3 shekels of silver; if it is 2 talents of wood, he shall pay 6 shekels of silver; 
if it is 3 talents of wood, it is (a case) for the king’s court. 

§ 103. If anyone steals a standing crop—if it is gipessar (acre?) of standing 
crop, he shall re-plant it and shall give 1 shekel of silver. If it is 2 gipessars 
of crop, he shall replant it and pay 2 shekels of silver. 

§ 104. If anyone cuts a pomegranate tree or pear (?) tree,...... shekels of 
silver he shall pay and for the future he is free. 

§ 105. If anyone lights a fire and in (a vineyard) it catches the vines— 
if vines, apple (?) trees, pomegranate (?) trees, fruit trees are burned, for 1 
tree he shall give 6 shekels of silver and shall replant the orchard, and for the 
future he is free. If he is a slave, he shall pay 3 shekels of silver. 

§ 106. If anyone lights a fire in a field and it catches the standing crop and 
burns the field, he who lighted it shall take the burned field and shall give a 
good field to the owner of the field; that one shall cultivate it. 

§ 107. If a person allows his sheep to enter the vineyard of a neighbor 
(?) and they lay it waste—if it is a cultivated vineyard, he shall give 10 shekels 
of silver for 1 acre; if it is a neglected vineyard, he shall give 3 shekels of silver. 

§ 108. If anyone steals olive-trees from a cultivated vineyard—if he steals 
100 trees, he shall pay 10 shekels of silver, and for the future he is free; but, 
eee an uncultivated vineyard he steals olive-trees, he shall pay 3 shekels of 
silver. 

§ 109. If anyone steals from an orchard of fruit trees, and it is 100 trees, 
he shall pay 6 shekels of silver. 


Sr eriteanyvone steals from... 0.0... 2.4. as much as he stole a corre- 
sponding amount he shall pay. 
Sii1. If anyone takes............ , the case is for the court of the king. 


§ 112. If for the field of a man at arms they give grain (the work of the 
Diantation), they shall not do, but in the fourth year..............000--a0ee 
with the men at arms they shall take. 

§ 113. If anyone cuts off (a vine) and takes (the vine) that is cut, he shall 


give (a good vine) to the owner of the vine... .... 0... ci cece tence se tncees 
Ce. siciwiaieies (sx res ns eres he shall take. 
ME en aon «kj. a geen ee Ce eae i eae a ieee 


Soe 1G en DS al whe aie sens Ge ie ps 6 8) DS 8 le S686 ©. 16 8 8 we Oe Ole € we oe we ee 


1 Two words occur here which have not been identified, 


380 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


OPO) 6 WO) e eae 6 eh 90) leo 8 6S oie le ee eee cee ed ee 


i i Ye ee PN a rw i ty 


These horticultural laws should be compared with §§ 59-66 of 
the Code of Hammurapi. The two codes reveal the differences in 
fauna of the two countries produced by the differences in their 
climates. In Babylonia the orchards were planted mainly with 
date-palms; in the Hittite country, with vines and fruit trees. In 
Babylonia the laws have to do mainly with the conditions of 
leases; among the Hittites, mainly with theft and dangers from 
fire. Among the Hebrews the conditions and laws were different 
from those in both the other countries. Vineyards and olive 
orchards are the only kinds of horticulture mentioned in the codes, 
and the laws have to do mainly with letting them lie fallow during 
the seventh year and with directions to leave the gleanings for the 
poor; (see Ex. 23: 11; Lev. 19:10; 25: 3, 4). Once (Ex. 22: 5) 
the vineyard is mentioned in order to bring its products under the 
law of restitution for damages which applied to an agricultural field. 


Further Laws Concerning Theft 


$ 119. If a bird of a bird-fancier (?).|.:030 oe anyone 
steals as a bird-raiser (?), formerly he paid...... shekels of silver; but now he 
shall pay 12 shekels of silver and for the future he is free. 

§ 120. If anyone steals some young (?) ...... birds, if there are 10 birds, 


he shall pay 1 shekel of silver. ; 

§ 121. If anyone steals a free peasant, they shall make the master set 
him atilibertyi@)2 gc oa eee ; formerly they made such a one............ 
avy ey , but now he shall pay 6 shekels of silver and for the future he shall 
go free. If it is a slave, he shall pay 3 shekels of silver. 

§ 122. If anyone steals the contents of a chariot, formerly he paid to the 


storehouse 1 shekel of silver, but now...... (shekels of silver he) shall pay, 
and for the future (he is free). 

$ 123.0 Tha e ea eee (anyone steals) . <5... Gosic.c6-0 aaa 
Skee teow ae .........3 Shekels (of silver he shall pay and for the future 
he shall go free). 

§ [240 Tr aoe (anyone steals...... shekels of silver) he shall pay and 
for the future he shall -go free. (If... .. ..... cs 2ueeie ei een et 
anyone hides (?), then the field. .......... << s ssp nerinen ieee e 
PPL then he stole. .....(shekels of silver) he shall give and for the future he 
shall go free. 

§ 125. If anyone steals a large jar...... (shekels of silver he shall pay). 


If anyone steals a harness (?) or a saddle (?), he shall pay 1 shekel of silver. 
§ 126. If anyone steals an ornament (?) from the gate of the palace, he 
shall pay 6 shekels of silver. If anyone steals a bronze lance from the gate 


A HITTITE CODE OF LAWS 381 


of the palace, that one shall die. If anyone steals a copper figure (?), he shall 
give 2 Pa (10 Qas) of grain. If anyone steals of clothing 1 garment, he shall 
give 1 woolen garment. 

§ 127. If anyone intentionally steals a door which he destroys, he shall 
restore it and shall pay 1 mana of silver, and for the future he is free. 

§ 128. If anyone steals bricks, he shall give as many as he stole. If anyone 
steals a foundation of stones, for 2 stones he shall give 10 stones. If anyone 
steals a stone figure (?) or a stone vase (?), he shall pay 2 shekels of silver. 

§ 129. If anyone steals from a horse or from a mule the reins (?) or the 


bridle. ..... or a buckle (?) of bronze, formerly he paid 1 mana of silver, but 
now he shall pay 12 shekels of silver, and for the future he is free. 
§ 130. If from an ox or a horse anyone steals a.......... (. .shekels of 


silver he shall pay), and for the future he is free. 

§ 131. If (anyone steals) a leather helmet (?), he shall pay 6 shekels of silver 
(and for the future he is free). 

§ 132. If (anyone steals) the........ of a free man (he shall pay) 6 shekels 
of silver (and for the future he is free). 

§ 133. If (anyone steals the.......... ) of a free man (he shall pay...... ) 
Sau WR es bok ec ds nsncpusaucaaus 


Be iene edad cade wah yaaveouQuratentgavess 
eee ie So a ale wc de bs ovevdesecucvaeguces (and he stole) 
a wooden lance (?), for 1 wooden lance (?) # Pa (10 Qas) of grain (he shall 
give. If he is a slave) for 1 wooden lance (?)...... (of grain he shall give). 

§ 143. If anyone steals from a free man a bronze knife (?)............ or 
OU , he shall pay 6 shekels of silver and for the future 
he is free. If he is a slave, he shall pay 3 shekels of silver. 

§ 144. If (anyone steals) a bronze knife from a barber...... and they 
SS SS If a lower garment with a border (?), 
ee 2 he shall pay 10 shekels of silver. If anyone carries 
OSS Ae A ne (; shekels of silver he shall pay). 


The Babylonian and Hebrew codes have nothing to compare 
with these laws further than such laws against stealing as have al- 
ready been mentioned. From the greater number of laws against 
theft in this code, we infer that stealing was much more common 
among the Hittites than among the other peoples under considera- 
tion. 


Laws Fixing the Amount of Damages 


§ 145. If anyone (rents) a cattle-stable, he shall pay 6 shekels........... 
Me yy sak v0 Rien nerith TERE ANS ads sale th 
§ 146. If anyone rents a house or a village or...... Of ae sees and 


another comes and does damage to it, that one shall make the repairs. The 
malefactor shall pay 1 mana of silver and shall leave the original work. 

§ 147. If anyone hires an unskilled workman and another seriously injures 
him, the malefactor shall pay...... shekels of silver. 

§ 148. If anyone hires an ox, a horse, a mule or an ass and another seriously 
injures it, the malefactor shall pay...... shekels of silver. 

§ 149. If anyone borrows a bull as a breeder and says: “It is dead,” he 
shall seek the owner; then he shall take it and give for it 2 persons, and for the 
future he is free. 


382 ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


These laws find their nearest parallel in §§ 234-240 of the Code 
of Hammurapi, where the responsibility of boatmen for the col- 
lision of boats on a canal is fixed. The details of the two codes are 
quite different, but the principle of responsibility for damages is 


the same. 
Laws Fixing Wages 
§ 150. If a man goes for wages for (1 month the wages are...... shekels 
of silver). If a woman goes for wages (for 1 month the wages are 
shekels of silver). 
§ 151. If anyone hires a plough-ox for 1 month (the wages are) 1 shekel 


eoeeoee 


ofosiiver. >If the (hires Gone for (1 month its wages are...... 
shekels of silver). 

§ 152. If anyone hires a horse........ (for 1 month its hireis...... shekels 
of silver). 


(At this point about 4 sections are broken away.) 


These sections should be compared with §§ 268-277 of the Code 
of Hammurapi, which fix the wages of animals and of people. 


The Rental of Various Objects 


§ 157. Ifit isa bronze axe of 1 mana weight, its rent for 1 month is 1 shekel 
of silver. If it is a bronze plate of 144 mana weight, its rental for a month is 
¥ shekel of silver. If it is a platter of 1 mana weight, its rental for 1 month is 
1% shekel of silver. 

§ 158. If a man goes and offers himself for wages and undertakes the 
management of a cart, is lodged in a straw-barn and irrigates a cultivated 
field, his wages for 2 months are 30 Pas of barley. If a woman (goes and offers 
herself) for wages in the kitchen (?) she shall receive as wages for 2 months 12 
Pas of barley. 

§ 159. If anyone yokes up a pair of oxen, their wages are 4 Pa of barley. 

§ 160. If a smith makes a bronze kettle of...... manas weight, his pay is 
100 Pas of barley. If he makes a bronze axe of 2 manas weight, his pay is 1 
Pa of sesame. 

§ 161. If he makes a bronze axe of 1 mana weight, his pay is 1 Pa of barley. 

§ 162. If anyone turns aside a canal, he shall pay 1 shekel of silver. If 
anyone dams up a canal to turn it aside, he is guilty (?); if (afterwards) he lets 
it down again, he is innocent (?). 


While these laws have no exact equivalent in the other codes, 
they are in principle similar to the preceding group and should be 
compared to the same group of Babylonian laws. 


Responsibility of a Shepherd 


§ 163. If anyone’s young animal be left motherless and he raises it, turning 
it over to another, he gives it to a shepherd to tend, but he (the shepherd) 
_ does not tell his helper and the helper does not know the young animal that 
was turned over, and kills it, there is penalty (for it). 


This law should be compared with §§ 263-267 of the Code of 
Hammurapi, which are the same in principle. 


A HITTITE CODE OF LAWS 383 


Ritual Laws 


§ 164. If anyone goes a journey, then he should insure safety; he should 
offer as a sacrifice flour and wine. 

§ 165. Then he shall give 1 sheep, 10 loaves, and 1 jug of beer. Then after- 
ward he shall offer a sacrifice for his house that the year may come around 
fortunately; then he may go to the front of his house. 

§ 166. If anyone sowed seed upon seed, they put him by the side of the 
plough and harnessed him to a yoke of oxen, this one over against those, that 
over against this they placed; men killed him; they killed the oxen, and he 
who had first sown the field took it. Formerly they did this. 

§ 167. Now 1 sheep shall be substituted for the man, 2 sheep shall be 
substituted for the oxen; he shall give 30 loaves, 3 jugs of beer; this is a piacular 
sacrifice, and he who first sowed the field shall cultivate it. 


This law is very interesting. Sowing one kind of seed on top of 
another was regarded as desecration. The feeling against it was 
even stronger than that which underlay the prohibition in Deut. 
22 : 11 against wearing a garment made of wool and linen mixed; 
it was sacrilege and in earlier time had been expiated by the kill- 
ing of the offender and two oxen. In this code sheep are substi- 
tuted for the man and the oxen just as in Exodus 34: 20, the first- 
born of a man and of an ass could be redeemed with a lamb. This 
mingling of civil laws with ritualistic requirements has no parallel 
in the Babylonian code. In this respect it stands nearer to the 
Pentateuch than the Code of Hammurapi does. 


§ 168. If anyone will establish the boundary of a field, he shall bring an 
offering: the owner of a field of 1 Gipeshar area he shall give it. He who would 
establish the boundary shall give 1 sheep, 10 loaves, 1 jug of beer; then after- 
ward the field is sacrosanct. 

§ 169. If anyone acquires a field and he establishes the boundary, he shall 
take flour and throw it toward the sun-goddess and say: ‘Thou hast planted 
my plants today!” This he shall say. It makes no difference whether to the 
sun-goddess or Teshub. 


The first of these laws is similar in purpose to some of the 
ritual laws of Leviticus, though the details and application ar 
different. Others are quite peculiar to the Hittites. 


A Witch Law 


§ 170. If a free man kills a serpent and speaks the name of another, he 
shall pay 1 mana of silver; if a slave, they shall kill him. 


Probably killing the snake as one pronounced the name of an- 
other was believed to direct the wrath of the snake toward that 
other so that the snake should not be satisfied until he killed the 
bearer of the name. It would be equivalent to casting a death- 


384 ARCHAOLOGY OF THE BIBLE 


spell upon the man so named. This law, then, should be compared 
with §§ 1, 2 of the Code of Hammurapi and with Ex. 22 : 18 and 
Deut. 18 : 10, ff. 


Renouncing and Receiving Back a Son 


§ 171. If a mother sends her son his garment at night, she repudiates her 
son. If afterward her son comes back and takes hold of her door, then he 
who was sent away may take his bed and his pillow (?); then she shall receive 
back him who was sent away and he shall be afterward her son. 


This law should be compared with §§ 192, 193 of the Code of 
Hammurapi—the nearest approach to such a law in the other 


codes. 
Laws Regulating Prices 


§ 172. If anyone sets at liberty a free man held bound for a year, he shall 
give his exchange; if a slave, he shall give 10 shekels of silver. 

§ 173. If anyone shall resist the justice of the king, his house shall become 
a charnel; if anyone resists the justice of a dignitary, his head shall be cut off; 
if a slave rises against his master, they shall put him in a pot. 

§ 174. If men fight and kill one, 1 person shall be given. 

§ 175. If a shepherd or an ointment-maker takes a free woman and she is 
a slave for 2 years or 4 years, her children belong to the household; those that 
belong to the household no one may take. 

§ 176A. If anyone castrates a full-grown bull, he is liable to the punishment 
of the king. In the third year he genders. The plough-ox, the ram, the 
billy-goat gender in the third year. 

B. If anyone hires an artisan, either a potter, a smith, a carpenter, a shoe- 
maker, a tailor, a weaver, or a maker of lace, he shall pay 10 shekels of silver. 

§ 177. If anyone employs a skilled bird-raiser, he shall pay 25 shekels of 
silver; if he employs an unskilled man or woman, he shall pay 20 shekels of 
silver. 

§ 178. The price of a plough-ox is 15 (?) shekels of silver. The price of a 
full-grown ox is 10 shekels of silver; the price of a full-grown cow is 7 shekels 
of silver; the price of a plough-ox and a cow a year old is 23 (?) shekels of silver; 
for a six-months old bull-calf one shall give 4 shekels of silver; if it is for a preg- 
nant cow, 8 shekels of silver; for a calf the price is 2 shekels of silver; for a 
stallion, a broken mare, a he-ass, a broken she-ass, the prices are similar. 

§ 179. If the price of 1 sheep is 1 shekel of silver, the price of 3 goats is 
2 shekels of silver; of 2 lambs, 1 shekel of silver; of 2 kids, 4% shekel of silver. 

§ 180. If the price of a saddle horse is 29 shekels of silver, the price of a 
mule is 1 mana of silver; the price of a horse is 14 shekels of silver; the price of 
a stallion is 10 shekels of silver; the price of a dray mare is 15 shekels of silver. 

§ 181. The price of a male colt and of a mare six months old broken to the 
yoke is 4 shekels of silver. The price of 4 manas of bronze is 1 shekel of silver; 
of 1 zimitan of refined oil, is 2 shekels of silver; of 1 zimitan of lard, is 1 shekel 
of silver; of 1 zémitan of butter, is 1 shekel of silver; of 1 zimitan of honey, is 
1 shekel of silver; of 2 cheeses, is (1 shekel of silver); the price of 3 (measures) 
of yeast is 1 shekel of silver. 

§ 182. The price of a sacred head-dress is 12 shekels of silver; of a lower 
garment, is 39 shekels of silver; of a blue woolen garment, is 20 shekels of silver; 
of 2 pairs of breeches (?), is 10 shekels of silver; of an apron (?), 3 shekels of silver; 
of a storm-cloak (?), is 4 shekels of silver; the price of a turban is 1 shekel of 


A HITTITE CODE OF LAWS 385 


SUWOT OL Ay ys ova oss « Pe necels Ol silver: offal ot oe eS vel an : 


of a web of 7 manas weight, the price is...... shekels of silver; of 1 large loin- 
cloth, 5 shekels of silver. 


» 183. If the price of 3 Pas of sesame is 1 shekel of silver, the price of 


BRS oe ae ss Rete shekels of silver; the price of) 1 Pa of wine is 14 shekel 
of silver; of a Pa (of...... is... .of silver); (the price of) 1 lot of land for build- 


ing (?) is 3 (shekels of silver; the price) of a lot of extra fine (?) land is 2 shekels 
of silver (if) for a neighboring (field) one gives 1 shekel of silver, 

§ 184. This the regulation in the city; (that for the country is) analogous. 

§ 185. The price of 1 unit of a vineyard is 1 mana of silver; of the skin of 
a full-grown ox, is 1 shekel of silver; of 5 skins of six-months old calves is 1 
shekel of silver; of 10 skins of cattle, is 1 mana! (!) of silver; of theskin of a woolly 
sheep, is 1 shekel of silver; of 10 skins of sheared sheep, 1 shekel of silver; of 
4 goat-skins is 1 shekel of silver; of 15 clipped goat-skins is 1 shekel of silver; 
of 20 lamb-skins is 1 shekel of silver: of 20 kid-skins is 20 shekels of silver. He 
who buys the flesh of two full-grown cattle shall give 1 sheep. 

§ 186. Anyone who buys the flesh of 2 cattle a year old shall give 1 sheep; 
he who buys the flesh of 5 cattle six-months old shall give 1 sheep; the flesh 
of 10 calves, shall give 1 sheep; the flesh of 10 (sheep), shall give 1 sheep; the 
flesh of 20 lambs, shall give 1 sheep; the flesh of (20) kids, shall give 1 sheep. 


These laws which fix prices are parallel to §§ 268-277 of the Code 
of Hammurapi, already referred to, though they differ from the 
Babylonian laws in detail. Like the Babylonian laws they fix 
prices—a procedure from which modern economists have dis- 
suaded most modern governments. 


Against Unnatural Sins 
§ 187. If a man lie with a cow the punishment is death. He shall be 
brought to the prison of the king and the king may put him to death or the 
king may let him live, but he shall not come near to the king. 
Piss.) li -with a........ a man lie, the punishment is death. They shall 
bring him to the prison of the king and the king may put him to death or the 
king may let him live, but he shall not come near to the king. 


The unnatural sin here punished by death is also recognized in 
Ex. 22:19 and Leviticus 20: 15, where the death-penalty is also 
imposed upon it. The Hittite law provides for a possible pardon 
by the king, but the Hebrew law leaves no way of escape from 
death for the culprit. 


Against Incest 


§ 189. Ifa man lie forcibly with his own mother, it is a punishable abom- 
ination; if he lie with his daughter, it is a punishable abomination; if he lie with 
his son, it is a punishable abomination. 

§ 190. But, if they come together willingly, the man and the woman, it is 
not punishable. If a man lie forcibly with his step-mother it is not punishable; 
but, if his father is living, it is punishable. 


1 The cuneiform text reads ma-na, which equaled 60 shekels. Apparently this is a mistake. 
Probably “‘shekel” was intended. 


386 ARCHEOLOGY OF THE BIBLE 


These laws touch upon the subject treated at much greater 
length by the law in Leviticus 18 : 6-18 and 20: 10-21. The He- 
brew laws were much more strict, and guarded the purity of the 
family circle much better than the Hittite. 


Against Adultery and Fornication 


§ 191. Ifa free man come together with the wife of a neighbor, if it is out 
of doors, here or there,! it is not punishable. If (they do it) a second time, it 
is punishable. 


The Hebrew law was much more strict in such cases; cf. Deut. 


22 2 22-29, 
On Killing a Man’s Wife 
§ 192. If a man kill a woman, the bereaved husband may take his wife. 


oF CR ee Oe Ceres be Pw pe ew 8 ke aw he ee tt ee 8 8 6 he el 8 8 OF 8) Be wile eee ele eee ee eee ene ee 


A Levirate Law 


§ 193. Ifa man takes a wife and the man dies, his brother shall take his 
wife; then his father shall take her; if also his father dies, one of the brothers 
(shall take her) whichever the woman shall choose. There is no punishment 
ensuing (?). 


This law is somewhat similar to the Levirate law of Deut. 25 : 5- 
10. That law, like this, provides for the marriage of a widow by a 
brother, only in case the brother dies without a son; it makes no 
provision, like the Hittite law, for the father to take her. The 
Hebrew law further provides a method of renouncing the obliga- 
tion to take the woman. The provision that, after one son has had 
the woman, the father should take her, finds a parallel in the story 
of Tamar in Gen. 38. The last clause of the Hittite law means 
that, in case the woman is not taken by any of her husband’s 
family, no penalty is inflicted upon them. | 


Further Laws on Adultery and Rape 


§ 194. Ifa free man comes together with a slave woman, there is no penalty. 
If parents lie with a free woman, there is no penalty. If a father Hj son lie 
with a slave-girl or a prostitute, there is no penalty. 

§ 195. Ifa man lies with the wife of his brother while his brother is living, 
it is a punishable abomination. If a man marries a free woman and has inter- 
course with her daughter, it is a punishable abomination. If he marries a 
daughter and has intercourse with her mother or sister, it is a punishable 
abomination. 


These laws should be compared to Leviticus 18 and 20 and Deu- 
teronomy 22, which treat of the same subject. Such a comparison 


1 Literally, “if it is out of doors, if it is out of doors,” 


A HITTITE CODE OF LAWS 387 


shows that Hittite social morals and ideals were on a lower plane 
than those of Israel. 


Against Various Kinds of Disorder 


§ 196. If slave men and slave women meet lewdly and go to one city and 
another city and make a disturbance, 1 sheep for this and 1 sheep for that is 
the purificatory offering. 

§ 197. If a man seizes a woman in the mountain and commits the human 
crime, he shall die. If he seizes her in a house, the woman is at fault, she 
shall die. If the husband finds them and they are killed, there is no penalty. 

§ 198. If he brings them to the gate of the palace and says: “Let not my 
wife die,” he may let his wife live; he may also let the ravisher live, but in that 
case he shall scar his head. If he shall say: “Let the two die,” then they shall 
receive their punishment. The king may kill them; the king may let them live. 


The last two of these laws should be compared with Deuteronomy 
22 : 22-27. The principles underlying the two codes are here the 
same, though the application is different. The Hittite code makes 
provision for sparing the life of the guilty man and woman, while 
the Hebrew law does not. 


More Unnatural Sins 


§ 199. If a man lies with a hog or a dog, he shall die. They shall bring 
him to the gate of the palace, and the king may put him to death or the king 
may let him live; but he shall not come near to the king. Ifa bull rear upona 
man, the bull shall die, but the man shall not die; 1 sheep is the purificatory 
offering; then they shall kill it. Ifa boar rear upon a man, there is no penalty. 

§ 200. If aman lies with a horse or a mule there is no penalty, but he shall 
not come near the king and he shall not become a priest. If (a man)........ 
tee with a hierodoule (?)..............0.000% thatione wesc ete s 
there is no penalty. If anyone gives a SOn................ (if he is) a car- 
penter (or a potter, or a weaver), or a shoemaker, or a tailor, or a (smith), 
he shall pay 6 shekels of silver. If she is the handmaiden of Teshub (?) or the 
sun-goddess, then he shall give 1 person. 


This last section apparently refers to intercourse with religious 
prostitutes, though it is too broken to enable us to be sure of the 
details. 

The code as a whole reveals the life of the Hittites as both at- 
tractive and repulsive. They were an agricultural people; the 
land seems to have been held by the community in common and let 
out on condition that it would be cultivated and certain military 
duties performed. Irrigation was practised; fires were much more 
abundant than in Babylonia, and thefts much more frequent. 
Judging by the number of laws against it, the people were much 
given to stealing. Slaves were numerous, but seem to have been 
allowed a good deal of liberty. Their religious customs, as we have 


388 ARCHAOLOGY OF THE BIBLE 


noted, remind one of some of the Israelitish customs and regula- 
tions, but there are such differences as to prove them independent 
of Israel. The code is written in cuneiform, and Sumerian and Ak- 
kadian words are frequently used. Were this not so we could not 
translate it at all; these. words enable us to know always what the 
subject in hand is, and often, how it is treated. There is to be de- 
tected in it some influence of the Babylonian laws, but, on the 
whole, it is slight. The Hittite laws are so different from those of 
Babylon that they were clearly the product of Hittite life and ex- 
perience. One interesting feature of this code is that it frequently 
modifies earlier customs and regulations in the interest of humani- 
tarianism. 

The final sections of the code, however, leave a painful impres- 
sion. They show the Hittites as recognizing and legitimatizing a 
bestiality of which we would gladly think them innocent. 


CHAPTER XV 
PART OF AN ASSYRIAN CODE OF LAWS! 


ASSYRIAN LAWS WITH COMPARISON OF BIBLICAL AND BABYLONIAN LAWS. 


DuRING the excavation of Kalah-Sherghat, the ancient Ashur, by 
Andrae (see above p. 49), an archive of tablets was found con- 
siderably older than that collected by Ashurbanipal in his library 
at Nineveh, and in this archive were found two large tablets, each 
containing eight columns of writing, on which is written part of a 
code of laws. The second of the tablets is not very well preserved, 
so that much of the writing which it contained has been lost, but 
from the two we recover over seventy sections of an Assyrian code 
of laws. As this is only about a quarter of the length of the Code 
of Hammurapi and one-third the length of the Hittite code, it is 
fair to assume that there were originally two or three more tablets 
in the collection on which the whole code was inscribed. 

We have no means of dating these tablets except by the form of 
the writing. The copies recovered were probably made in the 
ninth century, between 880 and 825 B. c. 


Laws Concerning Women 


Tablet I 


§ 1. If a woman, the wife of a man, or the daughter of a man enters into a 
temple that she may steal anything from the shrine, and it is found (in her 
hand), they shall surely arrest (her) they shall surely put her on trial........ 


eee ereeseeoer res eeceereseereerereeeeee sree eres es eee eres eee ereeres ee eee eee eer eer eer ere 


and gives it to a man or a woman or to any other (person), the wife of that 
man and the one who received (it) they shall kill. And if the wife of a man 
whose husband is living steals from the house of a man, whether she gives it to 
a man or a woman or to anyone whatsoever, the man shall examine his wife 
and impose punishment (literally “fix her sin’), and the receiver who received 
(the goods) from the man’s wife shall make restitution, and shall receive the 
same punishment which the man inflicts on his wife. 


1 The text is published by Otto Schroeder, Keilschrifttexte aus Ashur Verschiedenen Inhalis, 
Leipzig, 1920. It was translated by Jastrow in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, 
Vol. 41 (1921), pp. 1-59; also by V. Scheil, Recueil de lois assyriennes, Paris, 1921. In addition 
to the two tablets mentioned above, some fragments of others were found, but are too fragmentary 
for connected translation. 


389 


390 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


§ 4. Ifa slave or a bond-woman receives anything from a man’s wife, the 
nose and ears of the slave or the bond-woman they shall cut off and they shall 
make restitution; the husband shall cut off the ears of his wife; but, if he spares 
his wife and does not cut off her ears, they shall not cut off the ears of the slave 
or the bond-woman and they shall not make restitution. 

§ 5. If the wife of a man steals anything from the house of another man to 
the value of 5 manas of lead, she shall make restitution; the owner of the re- 
stored object shall swear thus: “TI have received them,” and thus: “They were 
stolen from my house.” If her husband wishes, he may make restitution and 
release her and cut off her ear. If her husband does not wish to release her, the 
owner of the object may take her and cut off her nose. 

§ 6. If the wife of a man makes a deposit in a pawn-shop (?), he who re- 
ceives it is guilty of theft. 

§ 7. Ifa woman stretches out her hands against a man, they shall arrest 
her; she shall pay 30 manas of lead and receive 20 strokes of the rod. 

If a woman in a fight crushes a man’s testicle, they shall cut off one 
of her fingers. If a physician binds up the man and the other testicle is in- 
volved and destroyed, compensation shall be granted. Or if in a fight both 
testicles are crushed, they shall destroy both her breasts. 

§ 9. Ifa man lifts up his hand against the wife of a man and acts like a 
young wild ox (?), they shall arrest him and try him; they shall cut off one finger. 
If he bites her, they shall cut off his lower lip with a poisoned bronze (knife?) 
whose edge is sharp. 

§ 10. If a man or a woman enters (a house) and kills (a man) or a woman 


Re nee Sabiae S| / the murderers.......... before him. ....... they shall kil. 
ee elk they shall take............ the murderers......... .amything....... 
a son or daughter........ in the house (?)!. ... 3. 7). os 
ete eee. ite ee ee Wc 


§ 11. Ifa man’s wife is going along the highway and a man seizes her with- 
out saying to her, “Let us embrace,” she does not consent, she defends herself, 
he is strong, he rapes her, both because he overpowers the wife of a man and 
because he has intercourse with a woman, the witnesses shall arrest him; they 
shall kill the man; the woman was not to blame. 

§ 12. If the wife of a man goes from her house unto a man and goes to a 
place where people meet and he has intercourse with her, because she is the 
wife of a man they shall kill both the man and the woman. 

§ 13. Ifa man’s wife and a man, either in a house of prostitution or on the 
highway, he knowing that she is a man’s wife, has intercourse with her, as if 
he were the man whose wife she is (and) they agree in the deed, the man has 
committed adultery. If not knowing that she was a man’s wife he had inter- 
course with her, the man is innocent of adultery. The husband shall take his 
wife and do with her what he pleases. 

§ 14. Ifa man finds a man with his wife, they shall arrest him and try him 
and put them to death. That (putting them to death) is not his sin. If he 
is caught and brought before the king or the judges, they shall examine him 
and establish his guilt. If the husband of the woman has killed his wife, then 
the man they shall kill. If he has cut off his wife’s nose, they shall make the 
man an eunuch and mutilate his whole face. If (the man) forgives his wife, 
the man (shall be forgiven). 

§ 15. Ifa man’s wife (makes) an agreement with a man, there is no blame 
attaching to the man; the husband of the woman shall visit punishment upon 
his wife as he wishes. If by force he has violated her, they shall arrest him and 
try him; his punishment shall be according to that of the wife of the man. 


1 The tablet has been broken at this point. 


PART OF AN ASSYRIAN CODE OF LAWS 391 


§ 16. Ifa man speaks to a man as follows: “They have violated thy wife,” 
and there were no witnesses, they shall throw that man into fetters and bring 
him to the river. 

§ 17. Ifa man says to his companion either in secret or in a brawl, as fol- 
lows: “They violated thy wife and I saw it” (when) it was not possible to see 
it and that man did not see it, they shall give him forty strokes with a scourge 
and he shall perform a full month of service for the king. They shall crop him 
and he shall pay a talent of lead. 

§ 18. If anyone in secret utters a slander against his companion, as follows: 
“They had intercourse with thee,” or in a brawl he says in the presence of men, 
“They had intercourse with thee and I saw thee” (when) he was not able to 
see, and that man did not see, they shall give him 50 lashes with a scourge, he 
shall perform a full month’s service for the king, they shall crop him and he 
shall give a talent of lead. 

§ 19. Ifa man have intercourse with his companion, they shall arrest and 
try him. If he had intercourse with him, they shall make him an eunuch. 

§ 20. If a man strikes the daughter of a man and causes a miscarriage, 
they shall arrest him and try him; he shall pay 2 talents 30 manas of lead, 
they shall give him 50 lashes with a scourge, and he shall perform a full month’s 
service for the king. 

§ 21. If one who is neither the father, brother nor son of a man’s wife, but 
another, seize her on the road, he shall swear that he did not know that she was 
a man’s wife, and shall pay 2 talents of lead to her husband. 

Brio oll, when os:.:.: . (a man gives) shelter (to a man’s wife), and if...... 
the man’s wife is not raped (because) the man gave shelter to the man’s wife, 
he shall go (to the ae he shall not be bound. If he returns from the river, 
as the woman’s husband did to his wife, they shall do to him. 

§ 23. Ifa man’s wife takes another man’s wife into her house and gives her 
to a man to have intercourse with, and he, knowing that she is the wife of a 
man, has intercourse with her when she is a man’s wife, and they have inter- 
course as though husband and wife, they shall adjudge the woman a procuress. 
But if no one has intercourse with her as a husband with his wife, they shall not 
adjudge them an adulterer and procuress in any respect; they shall release 
them. And, if the man’s wife did not know, and the woman who received her 
into her house brought her because of the man’s intention toward her and he 
had intercourse with her, if, when she goes from the house, she confesses that 
they had intercourse, they shall let that woman go; she is innocent. The adul- 
terer and the procuress they shall kill. But if the woman does not confess, the 
husband may inflict on his wife what punishment he pleases; the adulterer and 
the procuress they shall kill. 

§ 24. Ifa man’s wife is, in the presence of her husband, forcibly and bodily 
carried away, whether within a large city or in the suburbs to a house they 
have appointed, and she enters the house of an Assyrian man and lives with 
the mistress of the house three or four months (?) consecutively, and the master 
of the house does not know that it isa man’s wife that is living in his house, then 
the owner of the house whose wife was forcibly and bodily carried away in the 
presence of her husband, he and his wife take the blame. The married woman 
who, as though not a wife, they shall seize and shall cut off her ear. As his 
punishment her husband shall pay 3 talents 30 manas of lead as her price and 
fault, and shall take his wife. 

But if the owner of the house knew that it was a man’s wife that was brought 
into his house with his wife, he shall pay thrice as much. And if he resists and 
says, “I did not know,” they shall bring him unto the river. And if the man 
in whose house the man’s wife was caught returns from the river, he shall [not]? 


1 “Not” is clearly required here, though Schroede’s text omits it. 


392 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


pay three times as much. If the man whose wife was forcibly and bodily 
carried off in his presence returns from the river, he is innocent; the river settles 
all that, and if the man whose wife was forcibly and bodily carried off in his 
presence does not mutilate his wife, he shall take her as his wife; nothing further 
is imposed. 

§ 25. If a woman is retained in her father’s house and her husband dies, 
the brothers of her husband may not divide, though she has no son. What- 
ever as a free gift her husband settled upon her the brothers of her husband 
cannot annul; into the division it shall not go. Upon the rest that the gods 
have provided they may lay hands and take. To the river (ordeal) and oath 
they shall not be subjected. 

§ 26. If a woman is detained in the house of her father and her husband 
dies, anything that the husband has settled on her as a free gift, if there are 
children of her husband, they may take; if there are no children of her hus- 
band, she may take what is left. 

§ 27. If a woman is detained in the house of her father, her husband may 
enter, and whatever her husband has given her as a gift that he may take; 
to that which belongs to her father’s house he may not lay claim. 

§ 28. If a widow enters a man’s house and brings with her her minor son 
from the house of her brother who had brought him up, and her husband did 
not write a tablet of adoption, he shall receive no share of the estate of the one 
who brought him up, nor can one take him as a pledge! In the house of his 
ancestry he shall receive a portion according to his share. 

§ 29. If a woman enters the house of her husband, her dowry and what- 
ever she brings from her father’s house and what her father-in-law gives her 
when she comes is free for her children; the sons of her father-in-law may not 
touch it, but if her husband divorces her, he may give it to his children as he 
pleases. 

§ 30. If a father carries to the house of the father-in-law of his son any- 
thing that can be carried, the woman is not thereby pledged to his son. Ifa 
second son, (and) he whose wife is detained in the house of her father dies, then 
the wife of his dead son shall be given to his other son as a possession. If the 
master of the daughter who received the gift is not favorable to the betrothal 
of his daughter, at his pleasure the father who brought the gift may take (a 
girl) and give as a bride to his son. At his pleasure he may take as capital as 
per as he brought of lead, silver and gold; but not food. Food he may not 
touch. 

§ 31. Ifa man sends a betrothal gift to the house of his father-in-law and 
his wife dies, should his father-in-law have another daughter, at the pleasure 
of his father-in-law he may take the daughter of his father-in-law instead of 
his dead wife, or at his pleasure he may take again the silver which he had 
given. Grain or sheep or anything that is eatable they shall not give back to 
him; he receives only money. : 

§ 32. If a woman is retained in the house of her father and her dowry 
has been granted, whether she has taken it to the house of her father-in-law 
or has not taken it, it may be attached as interest on a debt and obligation of 
her husband. 

§ 33. If a woman is retained in the house of her father and her husband 
has died and there are children,...... aS... 4.6 sss een ee oe 
ae iat og eee acta and.....unto her father-in-law for a husband (?) it shall be 
given. If the husband and father-in-law have died and she has no son, she is 
a widow and may go wherever she pleases. 

§ 34. If a man marries a widow without a formal contract and she lives 
2 years in his house, that woman shall not depart from his house. 

17], @., as security for debt. 


PART OF AN ASSYRIAN CODE OF LAWS 393 


§ 35. If a widow enters the house of a man, whatever she brings all belongs 
to her husband; and if the man enters in unto the woman, whatever he brings 
all belongs to the woman. 

§ 36. If a woman is retained in the house of her father, though her husband 
would have her dwell in a completed house, and her husband has gone to the 
field and has not left her oil, wool, clothing, food, or anything, nor any income 
accruing from a field, that woman shall await her husband for 5 years and not 
live with (another) man. If she has children, they shall give her comfort and 
food; the woman shall await her husband; she shall not live with a man. If 
she has no children she shall await her husband five years; at the incoming of 
six years she may dwell with the husband of her choice. Her (first) husband 
on his return shall not come near to her; she is pledged to her last husband. 
If for five full years he is absent voluntarily and does not come near (her), 
either because a voice seized him and he fled, or because as a rebel he is caught 
and detained, he shall give a woman in place of his wife and shall take his wife. 
Or if the king sends him to another country and detains him for a space of five 
years, and his wife awaits him and does not dwell with a husband, or if before 
five years she does dwell with a husband and bears him children, her (first) 
husband on his return, because her obligation was not fulfilled, she shall be 
restored to him, and he shall take the children. 

§ 37. Ifa man divorces his wife, he may give her whatever he pleases. If 
he does not wish, he may give her nothing and she shall go forth empty-handed. 

§ 38. If a woman is detained in the house of her father and her husband 
divorces her, anything which he has voluntarily settled upon her he may take. 
He may not touch her marriage portion which she brought; it is secured to the 
woman. 

§ 39. Ifa man has not given his daughter to a husband and in the presence 
of her father she is placed as a pledge for an obligation—a former business-debt— 
he shall go and for the bridal-gift of the woman shall pay the price of the 
woman. If there is nothing for a bridal gift, the man shall take the one given. 
If she is living in misery, she is free to one who will rescue her; and if the man 
who takes the woman, whether he executes bonds or institutes a legal process 
for her, shall (pay) the price of the woman, then he (shall take) the one given. 


40. Whether wives of men...... or women...... on the street (shall 
veil) their heads. Men’s daughters...... whether out-door (?) garments...... 
or... .garments, or...... shallshe veiled ax'ys ...% their. heads fua ae 
wether .i....46% GLE DESO oe ERR a ca A oR Der ap eR RY co a Eo 02 
I ho ae wale a egal dk veda du vie seed downs veiled, 


if she walk on the street by day she shall be veiled, the captive woman who 
walks on the street with a mistress shall be veiled, the hierodoule who has taken 
a husband shall be veiled on the street, the one who has not taken a husband 
her head on the street is uncovered, the foreign captive woman is veiled, the 
prostitute is unveiled, her head is uncovered; whoever sees a prostitute veiled 
shall seize her, he shall summon witnesses and take her to the portal of the 
palace. Her ornaments they shall not take away, but the garment in which 
she was seized they shall take. They shall give her 50 lashes and pour asphalt 
on her head. But if a man shall see a prostitute veiled and shall let her go 
and not bring her to the portal of the palace, they shall inflict on that man SO 
stripes, his batikan and his garment they shall take, they shall pierce his ear, 
shall insert a cord in it, and bind it to the back part of it and for one full month 
he shall perform work for the king. Female slaves are not veiled. Whoever 
sees a slave-woman veiled shall seize her and bring her to the portal of the 
palace; they shall cut off her ear. He who seized her shall take her garments. 
If a man sees a slave-woman veiled and lets her go and does not seize her, and 
does not take her to the portal of the palace, they shall arrest and try him; they 
shall give him 50 lashes, pierce his ear, insert a thread and bind it to the back 


394 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


part of it, his batikan and garment they shall take, and for one full month 
he shall perform labor for the king. 

§ 41. If a man veils his captive woman, brings in 5 or 6 companions, veils 
her in their presence and says, “She is my wife,” she is his wife. That captive 
woman who is unveiled in the presence of men, whose man does not say, “She 
is my wife,” is not a wife; she is a captive woman. Ifa man dies and his veiled 
wife has no children, the children of the captive woman are their children; 
they take their portion. 

§ 42. If a man pours oil on the head of a man’s daughter on the day of 
anointing and brings products (?), there is no revocation. 

43. Ifa man pours oil on the head and brings products (?), if the son 
whose wife they were betrothing either dies or flees, he may give her to whom- 
soever he may please among his remaining sons from the oldest to the youngest, 
even to one of 10 years. If the father dies and the son whose wife they were 
betrothing dies, should there be a son of the dead son of ten years of age, he 
takes her. If within 10 years the sons of the son are too small, the father of 
the girl may give the girl (in marriage) at his pleasure and make recompense 
in equity. If there is no son, whatever was received of precious stones, not 
eatables, the capital he shall return; he shall return nothing eatable. 

44, If an Assyrian man or an Assyrian woman is detained in a man’s 
house as security for any sum whatever, they shall take the whole of it; he shall 
give suitable quittance. His ear they shall mutilate and pierce. 

§ 45. If a woman is betrothed and an enemy captures her husband, she 
shall await her husband for two years. During these two years she may go and 
say that she has no food and be a dependent on the palace................ 
shall feed her. Its (work) she shall do, she is a,.,.:.) 100) 
a9. elie vials ate ate data Glick Sa etae oe etn '...field..........she shall go 
(and say) for food............ the judges shall ask the rulers of the city that 
they go to the field in that city and give the field and house to her to work 
for her support for two years. She dwells there and they write a tablet for her. 
When two years have been fulfilled she may live with the husband of her choice; 
they write her a tablet for widowhood. If at a future time her lost husband 


PART OF AN ASSYRIAN CODE OF LAWS 395 


the creditor is free to do as he pleases; he may give her toa husband.......... 
iinet Ss AGS ie ea ane PIO a NEL. «cas aos PRE Ap) Be i ee Bir atta 
MGI Pe ce sis ssl 5 ODES ON TA IS elit aia aera him 

EO ysis ie ek sade os ass SAGA 3 Dah RG ee Noe with the brother. 
But if the prostitute dies, because of this her brothers say, “her...... a portion 


@ iat © Wile and... -..++...... Sie ee ee. ek ge g he shall make, in (place of) 
her fruit he shall make restitution for a human life. If that woman dies, they 
shall kill the man. And if the husband of that woman, whose wife was struck 
so that she had a miscarriage, has no son, as atonement for the embryo they 
shall kill him who struck the blow. If what was in her womb was a developed 
foetus, he shall make restitution for a human life. 

§ 51. Ifa man strikes the wife of a man not yet advanced in pregnancy so 
that she has a miscarriage, for that offense he shall pay 2 talents of lead. 

§ 52. If a man strikes a harlot so that she has a miscarriage, they shall 
inflict on him blow for blow. He shall make restitution for human life. 

§ 53. If a woman by herself causes a miscarriage, they shall arrest her 
and put her on trial, they shall impale her on stakes and shall not bury her. 
If she dies in consequence of the miscarriage, they shall impale her on stakes 
and shall not bury her. If they curse that woman on account of her mis- 
carriage, they shall say 


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Ep RPP S erties We 1k Cer, pelea Wk aed Begin aia Reman 

§ 55. If a man takes a virgin from the house of her father and does not 
return her to her father, if she has not been deflowered or taken as a wife or 
held for a claim on the house of her father, any man who seizes the virgin, 
whether within the city or the country or by night on the highway or at a 
house of feasting or at a city feast, and violates her, the father of the virgin 
may take the wife of the seducer of the virgin and give her to be ravished. To 
her husband he may not return her; he takes her. The father of the ravished 
girl gives her to the seducer as a possession. If he has no wife, the seducer 
shall give to her father 3 times the price of the virgin. The seducer who seized 
her shall not divorce her. If the father does not wish to receive 3 times the 
price of the virgin, he may give his daughter to whomsoever he pleases. 

§ If a virgin of her own accord gives herself to a man, the man must 
swear (it). His wife they shall not touch. Three times the price of the virgin 
ee adulterer shall give and the father of the girl may do with her whatever he 
pleases. 

§ 57. Whether one strikes or (seduces) a man’s wife, a tablet is written 


396 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


§ 38. °-Forvall offenses: ety the cutting ‘of(feee eee and folding (?) 
as a pledge (?)...... as it is written...... on totes : ; 

§ 59. On the correction of offenses (which are committed) which are written 
on (this) tablet, a man may disfigure his wife’s face; he may turn and trust (her), 
it (the mutilation of her face) is no sin. 


Here the first tablet of the Assyrian code ends, and with it the 
laws relating to women. Neither in the Code of Hammurapi nor 
in the Pentateuch nor the Hittite code have we as many laws re- 
lating to women as are found in this Assyrian code. On the whole, 
Assyrian society seems to have been more barbarous and more 
given to sins of lust than the Babylonian, though, in the portions 
of the Assyrian code that have been recovered, we find no such 
references to unnatural sins as are contained in the Hittite code. 

Without going into great detail, we may note that the principles 
on which adultery and rape are punished are the same as those 
which underlie the Babylonian laws on chastity, marriage, and 
divorce. The same is true of the laws controlling the dower rights 
of women; (see Code of Hammurapi, §§ 128-161). These prin- 
ciples are some of them also found in the laws of Leviticus and 
Deuteronomy. The Biblical passages referring to them have 
been cited above in Ch. XIII, p. 356, ff, and it does not seem neces- 
sary to repeat them here. The death-penalty for adultery, for ex- 
ample, imposed in so many sections of the Assyrian code, is paral- 
leled in Lev. 20: 10 and Deut. 22:22. The Assyrian law, how- 
ever, commits the wife to the mercy of her husband in a way with- 
out parallel in the Bible. It also provides for mutilation of the face 
and hands in a way without parallel in Babylonia and Israel. 
Some slight parallel both to the power of the husband and to mu- 
tilation is found in the Hittite code, for example, § 198, but of all 
these people the Assyrians were the most primitive in their atti- 
tude toward such matters. 

A number of sections of the Assyrian laws provide for the ordeal 
of plunging into the river. Sometimes the culprit was bound, as 
in § 16, and sometimes unbound, as in § 22. Hebrew law provided 
an ordeal for one similar case (see Num. 5: 11-28), though the 
nature of the ordeal was different. 

In § 43 of this Assyrian code we have a Levirate law which re- 
minds us of that in Deut. 25: 5-10, though the purpose of it is 
different; the Biblical law is designed to secure offspring for a de- 


ceased man; the Assyrian, to provide a husband for a widowed 
woman, 


PART OF AN ASSYRIAN CODE OF LAWS 397 


In §§ 40-43 we have an interesting parallel to the Hebrew cus- 
tom of piercing the ear, provided for in Ex. 21 : 6 and Deut. 15 : 17, 
though the purpose is different in the two countries; in Palestine 
it was a mark of perpetual slavery voluntarily assumed; in As- 
syria, it was a punishment for crime. 

The 47th section of the Assyrian code contains a law against 
the practice of witchcraft similar to that in the Code of Hammurapi, 
§§ 1 and 2. A similar law is found in Ex. 22 : 18 and another in 
§ 170 of the Hittite code; though in each code the provisions differ 
in details. 

The second of the tablets containing the Assyrian laws is much 
broken. The parts of it which can be made out are numbered 
with Roman numerals in order to call the reader’s attention to the 
fact that they do not run consecutively, as do those of the first 
tablet. 


Laws Concerning Real Estate 


ML ge ot chy ee a cr Bais (Pe aa clash each: of land 
(the oldest son) shall lay claim to 2 portions and take them, and his brothers 
afterward equally shall claim and take. The younger sons may claim from 
cultivated land provisions and a portion (?) of whatever is cultivated. The 
oldest son may claim and take 1 portion, and as his second portion may demand 
service of his brothers. 

§ II. If one among brothers of an undivided estate destroys human life, 
they shall hand him over to the owner of the human life. At his pleasure the 
owner of the human life may kill him; but should he please, he may pardon 
him and take his share. 

§ III. If one of the brothers of an undivided estate shall utter sedition (?) 
and flee, his portion is the king’s according to his pleasure. 

§ IV. If brothers are on an undivided estate (and) one of the brothers sows 
yee seed......cultivates the field..........and goes..........the grain 
OL nis DrOLuer. 6... his second (?)........ they shall arrest him and put him 
MII es 6s kes shall cultivate... 0/25’ shall take. 


en ae ne eat re helt Oe Awa /ai se 6) 6 6Ne¢, ee) Ble: 9) eter e ee Te! gee) erie Ot AER KES) 8) See FO PNG Sila 8) iS a ee 


§ VI. (If) for silver a man would acquire (a house and field) he must bind 
himself not to acquire (that) house (and field) for one month. The court 
officer shall cause it to be cried in the city of Ashur 3 times; 3 times he shall 
cause to be cried in the city the house and field which he would acquire, as 
follows: “The house and field of So-and-So, the son of So-and-So, within the 
limits of this city I would acquire for (silver); whatever their demands and price 
may be, let them bring their tablets and deposit them with the recorder, let 
them state the price, let them make it free and let them take it.” If within 
that month, adjudged as the time limit, they do not neglect to bring their 
tablets, the man shall establish the boundary of his field and take it. On the 
day that the court officer causes it to be cried in the city of Ashur, one of the 
officers from the king’s presence, the city scribe, the court officer and a repre- 
sentative of the king shall take their stand to convey the field and house within 
the city. As the prefect and the three magnates of the city stand by, the court 
officer shall proclaim: “Their tablets are written and delivered.” 


398 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


But if within that month that the court officer proclaims 3 times—if in that 
month he does not bring his tablets and does not deposit them before the 
recorder, on the field and house he may lay his hand; it is free because it has 
been “cried” by the court officer. Three tablets of its crying by the court 
officer shall be written for the judges (with the recorder) (they shall be de- 


posited)... eee eee ee eave aun tele ale nnn 

§ VID. oe eee ce wanbuwy cu sene bible sige eels ini 
as much........ he may claim (?)......,.:+-s0:f0F,. 0.) ie 
Price res). ae sae (of what) they injured............ twice the price of the 
house. vice ok he (shall recover) for the owner of the house, unto 1 talent of 


lead; they shall inflict on him five (stripes) (and) he shall perform (a full 
month’s) service for the king. 

§ VIII. Ifa man encroaches greatly on his neighbor, they shall arrest him 
and determine his guilt; he shall give three times the area of field that he en- 
croached. They shall cut off one of his fingers, give him 100 lashes, and for 
an entire month he shall perform work for the king. 

§ IX. Ifa man violently makes a small encroachment on a lot, they shall 
arrest him and put him on trial; he shall pay 1 talent of lead. The area of 
field which he had violently taken he shall restore; they shall give him 50 lashes, 
and he shall perform 1 full month’s service for the king. 

§ X. Ifa man digs a well in a field not his, for his well and work they shall 
give him 30 strokes; twenty days he shall (perform) work for the king. If 


SRR ae eee on a ruin..........(he shall do) work, he shall swear.... 
pA cade as follows: “If........... well not, 37.0). ..ame Oren 
owner of the field............ In 2-7 ees Well... ..:4:54 a eee ee 

i >< MID KTCS 
and........., work (man).,....,..:t0 cultivate.) )¢.5/man alan 
sea es has the workman..........the tablets............maintenance.... 
Ot cee Aw ie to work............the field..............for the workman... 


shall perform (a full month’s service for the king). 
§ XVI. ee a eee a 


a ee aes ee ee Ce te ME eee Sr eC) i a 


Bei dercss kik ee eee 1+ \¢) EMER fe 


a tablet from the judges and may carry on the work. Those waters he may take 
and irrigate his field; he may irrigate nothing of another. 


PART OF AN ASSYRIAN CODE OF LAWS 399 


§ XVIII. If it is rain water they have brought to store for irrigation, the 
owners of the field shall share it together, each within the limits of his field 
shall do his work and irrigate his field. But if among them there is not har- 
mony and one of them receives a tablet from the judges because there is not 
mermnony. 6. ts. te chief-men... 2... . 5. 

ecw et ce ee eet erence eee weeceeens 


ee oer cswisinohiiels! 8 ae <¢ 6 8 eee Gee ee ee ere as CC KOH He KS eee eH aeeeee ery eee 


§ XX. (If a man) work (the field of) his neighbor.......... restrain him 
RE it ey os fs of the king (he may) work and cultivate..........and he shall 


LUE” RA Rise oleae aoa he shall give (for) the field. 
§ XXI. (if a man from) a field not his takes a little.......... and fences 
it and places boundary stones................ shall say (they shall arrest 


Meets HC OME ETIAL ee ee ee nent e tenes tence 


ee SS Es Se ea et CCS A 


The entire code doubtless contained other land laws, but those 
here translated are all that have been recovered; probably more 
of the code may be brought to light by future explorations. 

These laws concerning real estate should be compared with the 
Code of Hammurapi, §§ 42-58. The Babylonian laws deal with 
different aspects of real estate problems, but certain underlying 
principles may be found in the two codes. The Pentateuch pre- 
sents no real parallel to these laws. Such real estate laws as it 
contains are found in Ex. 22 : 5-15; Deut. 19 : 14, but they treat 
mainly of other topics than those treated in the Assyrian code. 
The Hebrew law against removing land-marks (Deut. 19: 14) is 
represented in principle in the Assyrian laws by §§ VIII and IX, 
which clearly refer to the same subject, and by §§ X-XV, which 
treat of a kindred form of trespass. The Assyrian code provides 
penalties for the violation of its provisions. Its laws therefore had 
“teeth” in them, while the Biblical law had none. 

Such narratives as that of Genesis 23, which tells of Abraham’s 
purchase of the cave of Macpelah, and 1 Kings 21, which tells how 
Naboth refused to sell his vineyard, show that transfers of real 
estate were known in Israel, though we have no laws on the sub- 
ject in the Pentateuch. Some of those in the Assyrian code are 
very interesting. That in § VI, which lays down the procedure to 
be followed in transferring land within the city of Ashur, has a 
very modern sound, though perhaps the employment of a town- 
crier is medieval rather than modern. Now the advertising col- 
umns of a newspaper take the place of the crier. 


CHAPTER XVI 


AN ALLEGED PARALLEL TO LEVITICUS—A CARTHA- 
GINIAN LAW CONCERNING SACRIFICES! 


Tae TEXT oF THE CARTHAGINIAN LAW. COMPARISON WITH THE LEVITICAL Law. 


1. The Text of the Carthaginian Law. 


Temple of Baal[zephon]. Tar[iff of dJues, which [the superintendents of d]ues 
fixed in the time [of our rulers, Khalas]|baal, the judge, son of Bodtanith, son of 
Bod[eshmun, and of Khalasbaal], the judge, son of Bodeshmun, son of Khalas- 
baal, and their colleagues. . 

For an ox as a whole burnt-offering? or a prayer-offering, or a whole peace- 
offering,’ the priests shall have 10 (shekels) of silver for each; and in case of a 
whole burnt-offering, they shall have in addition to this fee [300 shekels of fle]sh; 
and, in case of a prayer-offering, the trimmings, the joints; but the skin and the 
fat of the inwards* and the feet and the rest of the flesh the owner of the sacrifice 
shall have. 

For a calf whose horns are wanting, in case of one not castrated (?), or in case 
of a ram asa whole burnt-offering, the priests shall have 5 shekels of silver [for 
each; and in case of a whole burnt-offering they shall have in addit]ion to this 
fee 150 shekels of flesh; and, in case of a prayer-offering, the trimmings and the 
joints; but the skin and the fat of the inwards and the fe{et and the rest of the 
flesh the owner of the sacrifice shall have]. 

In case of a ram or a goat as a whole burnt-offering, or a prayer-offering, or a 
whole peace-offering, the priests shall have 1 shekel of silver and 2 zars for each; 
and, in case of a prayer-offering, they shall [have in addition to this fee the trim-_ 
mings] and the joints; but the skin and the fat of the inwards and the feet and 
the rest of the flesh the owner of the sacrifice shall have. 

For a lamb, or a kid, or the young (?) of a hart, as a whole burnt-offering, or a 
prayer-offering, or a whole peace-offering, the priests shall have 3 (of a shekel) 
andis.. ss zars of silver [for each; and, in case of a prayer-offering, they shall 
have in addition] to this fee the trimmings and the joints; but the skin and the 
fat of the inwards and the feet and the rest of the flesh the ownler of the sacri- 
fice] shall have. 

For a bird, domestic or wild, as a whole peace-offering, or a sacrifice-to-avert- 
calamity (?) or an oracular (?) sacrifice, the priests shall have # (of a shekel) of 
silver and 2 zars for each; but the f[lesh shall belong to the owner of the sacrifice]. 

For a bird, or sacred first-fruits, or a sacrifice of game, or a sacrifice of oil, 
the priests shall have 10 glerahs] for each: but. )),i- 

In case of every prayer-offering that is presented before the gods, the priests 
shall have the trimmings and the joints; and in the case of a prayer-offering. ... 


1 From the Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum, I, No. 165. 

*It is the word so translated in Deut. 33 : 10. 

3 So rendered in Lev. 7: 13; 10:14. Many scholars would render it “thank-offering.” 
‘ Compare Exod. 29: 13, 14. The Hebrew law differed from the Carthaginian, 


400 


AN ALLEGED PARALLEL TO LEVITICUS 401 


For a cake, and for milk, and for every sacrifice which a man may offer, for a 
meal-ofiering’.......... 

For every sacrifice which a man may offer who is poor in cattle, or poor in 
birds, the priests shall not have anything.......... 

Every freeman and every slave and every dependent? of the gods and all men 
who may sacrifice.......... , these men [shall give] for the sacrifice at the rate 
prescribed in the regulations.......... 

Every payment which is not prescribed in this table shall be made according 
to the regulations which [the superintendents of the dues fixed in the time of 
Khalasbaal, son of Bodtani]th, and Khalasbaal, son of Bodeshmun, and their 
colleagues. 

Every priest who shall accept payment beyond what is prescribed in this 
table shall be fi[ned]............ 

oe person who sacrifices, who shall not give............ for the fee 
MRM pire s 5)2.4< 


2. Comparison with the Levitical Law. 

This document is not earlier than the fourth or fifth century B. c. 
The Carthaginians, from whom it comes, were an offshoot of the 
Pheenicians, who were, in turn, descended from the Canaanites. 
They were accordingly of kindred race to the Hebrews. One can, 
therefore, see from this document something of how the Levitical 
institutions of Israel resembled and how they differed from those of 
their kinsmen. It will be seen that the main sacrifices bore the 
same names among both peoples. We find the “whole burnt- 
offering,” the ‘‘peace-offering,” and the “meal-offering.” The 
Carthaginians had no “‘sin-offering,” while among the Hebrews we 
find no “‘prayer-offering.” The ways of rewarding the priests also 
differed with the two peoples. The Hebrews had no such regular 
tariff of priests’ dues as the Carthaginians, but parts of certain 
offerings and all of others belonged to them. Leviticus assigns 
from the peace-offering the “‘heave-thigh” and the ‘‘wave-breast”’ 
to the priests (Lev. 7 : 14, 34; Num. 5:9, 10; 31:29, 41). Meal- 
or flour-offerings belonged to the priests (Lev. 5 : 13; 7:9, 10), as 
did the sin- and trespass-offerings (Lev. 6 : 18, 29; 7:9, 10). Of 
the burnt-offerings the priests had the skin (Lev. 7 : 8). 

The interesting thing is that in the ritual, as in the social laws, 
we find that the heathen Semites had a considerable number of 
regulations similar to those of the Hebrews. 


1 This is the rendering of the Revised Version for this word. The Authorized Version rendered 
it less accurately “meat-offering.” 

2 Each temple had a number of officials connected with it besides the priests, such as carpenters, 
gate-keepers, slaughterers, barbers, Sodomites, and female slaves. Another Phcenician inscrip- 
tion mentions these. 


CHAPTER XVII 


SOME LETTERS FROM PALESTINE 


LETTERS OF Rrs-ADDA OF GEBAL. Or EBED-HEPA OF JERUSALEM. THEIR LIGHT ON 
CONDITIONS IN THE PERIOD OF THE EGYPTIAN DOMINATION OF PALESTINE. 


Many of the El-Amarna! Letters were written from Palestine 
and Phoenicia. Some scholars think these letters come from the 
Patriarchal period; others hold that they are contemporary with 
the Hebrew conquest, and give us additional information concerning 
it. Some of those who hold this last view believe that the conquest 
of Palestine by the Hebrews was not made all at once. They think 
that the tribes descended from Leah entered the land before those 
descended from Rachel. Such scholars hold that these letters give 
us contemporary evidence of the wars of the Leah tribes. Which- 
ever view one takes, the letters are most interesting, as they open to 
us a previously unknown chapter in the history of Jerusalem. 

1. Some Letters of Rib-Adda of Gebal.? 


yz 


To the king, my lord, the king of the countries, speak, saying, Rib-Adda, thy 
servant, the footstool of thy feet; at the feet of the sun, my lord, eight times and 
seven times I prostrate myself. Again, there is clear to the king, my lord, the 
deed of Ebed-Ashera, the dog, when all the lands of the king, my lord, are made 
over unto him and are subservient to his land. And now behold the city of 
Sumur has been won over—a fold of my lord and a temple of his shrine—to 
him, and he has encamped in the temple of my shrine and has opened the place 
of the curse of my lord and wonit. Whatishe,aman.......... and dog that 
he should judge? Again, when men say in the presence of the king, my lord: 
“Learn that Gebal is........<...: ”? then know that he has not taken Gebal 
Ae ea ye and it is difficult for the lands of the king, my lord. Again, 
let the king, my lord, send his inspector who may judge.......... and may 
protect the city of the king, my lord. AndI.......... and will serve my lord, 
the king of the lands. And may my lord send people and let them bring what- 
ever belongs tomy.......... into the presence of the king, my lord, and let not 
that dog take anything that belongs to thy gods. And is it clear now that he 
would take Gebal? See, Gebal is like Memphis, loyal to the king. A second 
time, see Ebed-Ninib, the man whom I sent with Buhiya, isa.......... So 


1See Part I, Chapter I, § 7 (3). 

From Winckler und Abel’s Thontafelnfund von El-Amarna, No. 73. Cf. Knudtzon, Die E]- 
Amarna Tafeln, No. 84. 

* The letter takes up assertions made by Rib-Adda in previous letters. 


402 


SOME LETTERS FROM PALESTINE 403 


send unto thy servant. Again see, Ummahnu is a maid-servant of the Baal- 
goddess of Gebal; her husband is Ishkur.......... RON pants ci oa 


(The tablet is broken off at this point.) 


i? 


These letters mention a certain Ebed-Ashera and claim that his 
sons are gaining possession of all the land of Amurru. If the 
‘“Ebed” were dropped out of the phrase, “sons of Ebed-Ashera,’’? 
there would remain “‘sons of Ashera,” or, ‘‘sons of Asher.’’ The 
“and of Amurru,” or, “land of the Amorites,” lay, at the time these 
letters were written, in the later home of the tribe of Asher, and a lit- 
tle to the north of it, between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon moun- 
tains. Some scholars hold that we have in these letters references 
to the coming of the “‘sons of Asher,” or the tribe of Asher into this 
region, but it is a theory which in the present state of our knowledge 
we can neither prove nor disprove. If it should prove to be true, 
these tablets would reflect a part of the Hebrew conquest of this 
region. 

2. Letters of Ebed-Hepa of Jerusalem. 


IF 


[To the king, my lord, speak, saying, E]bed-H[epa thy servant—at] the feet 
[of the king, my lord,] seven times and seven times [I prostrate myself]. Behold 


1 Winckler und Abel, op. cit., No. 77, Knudtzon, op. cit., No. 103. 
2 These “sons of Ebed-Ashera”’ are mentioned in many other letters. 
3 Winckler und Abel, op. cit., No. 174, and Knudtzon, op. cit., No. 286. 


404 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


I am not a [prefect]; a vassal am I unto [the king, my lord]. Why did not the 
king, [my lord], send a messenger [quickly]? In similar circumstances sent 
Tenhamu a. ahr e ee I. [May] the king [hearken unto Ebed]-Hepa, his 
servant. [Behold] there are no mercenaries. [May] the king, my lord, s[end 
a governor] and let him take [the prefects] with him.......... lands of the king 
Shoes and people..........who are..........{and Addaya], the governor 
of the king [has] their house.......... So may the king care for them and send 
a messenger quickly. When.......... 


I! 


To the king, my lord, speak, saying, Ebed-Hepa, thy servant—at the feet of 
my Jord, the king, seven times and seven times I prostrate myself. What 
have I done to the king, my lord? They slander and misrepresent me before the 
king, my lord, [saying]: Ebed-Hepa is disloyal to the king, his lord. Behold I— 
neither my father nor my mother set me in this place; the arm of the mighty king 
caused me to enter into the house of my father. Why should I commit rebellion 
against the king, my lord? As long as the king, my lord, lives I will say unto the 
governor of the king, my lord: ‘“‘Why dost thou love the Habiri and hate the 
prefects?’’ But thus he misrepresents me before the king, my lord. NowTI say, 
“Lost are the lands of the king, my lord.” So he misrepresents me to the king, 
my lord. But let the king, my lord, know (that) after the king, my lord, set 
guards, Ienhamu ‘took them all;... 2.407.550 eee Egypt..9) 2 of the 
king, my lord; [there are no] guards there. Then may the king care for his land! 
May the king care for his land! Separated are all the lands from the king. 
Ilimilku has destroyed all the country of the king; so may the king, my lord, 
care for his land! I say: “I will enter the presence of the king, my lord, and I 
will behold the eye of the king, my lord,” but the enemy is more mighty than I, 
and I am not able to enter into the presence of the king, my lord. So may it 
seem right to the king.......... may he send guards, and I will enter in and 
will behold the eyes of the king, my lord! And so long as the king, my lord, 
lives, so long as the governors are withdrawn, I will say: ‘‘Perished are the lands 
of the king.”’ Thou dost not hearken to me! All the prefects have perished; 
there is left no prefect to the king, my lord! May the king turn his face toward 
mercenaries, so that there may come forth mercenaries of the king, my lord. 
There are no lands left to the king, my lord. The Habiri plunder all the coun- 
tries of the king. If there are mercenaries in this year, then there will be left 
countries of the king, my lord. If there are no mercenaries, the countries of the 
king will be lost. Unto the scribe of the king, my lord, saying: ““Ebed-Hepa, thy 
servant. Take beautiful words to the king, my lord! Lost are all the lands of 
the king, my lord.” 


Ill? 


[To the king, my lord, [speak,] saying, Eb]ed-Hepa, thy servant. [Unto the 
feet] of my lord seven [times and seven times I prostrate myself]. [I have heard 


‘all] the words [which the king, my lord,] has sent to me.......... Behold the 
deed which ss ane has donesg oar Copperas. word... 4.0.5 
He has brought [into the city Keilah]. [Cf. Josh. 15 :44.] May the king know 


that all the lands are gone and there is enmity against me. So may the king 
care for hisland! Behold the land of the city Gezer, the land of the city Askelon 
and the city of Lakish have given them food, oil, and all kinds of herbs. So may 
the king give attention to the mercenaries! May he send mercenaries against 
the people who commit outrages against the king, my lord! If there are in this 


1 Winckler und Abel, No. 102; Knudtzon, 286. 
2 Winckler und Abel, op. cit., No. 103; Knudtzon, of. cit., No. 287. 


~ 


SOME LETTERS FROM PALESTINE 405 


year mercenaries, then there will remain lands and prefects to the king, my lord. 
But if there are no mercenaries, there will be no lands and prefects to the king. 
Behold this land of the city of Jerusalem—neither my father nor my mother 
gave it to me; the mighty hand, the arm of the king gave it tome. Behold this 
deed; it is the deed of Malkiel and the deed of the sons of Labaya, who have 
given the land of the king to the Habiri. Behold, O king, my lord, right is on 
my side as regards the Kashi-people. Let the king ask the governors whether 
that house is very mighty and they have committed a grievous, a great sin; they 


have taken their weapons and have cut off the horsemen (?).......... And may 
he send into that land.......... WTO ee cents WLUH A eat te oo servants. May 
ithe king) care for them...............- the lands in their hands [and] may 


the king provide for them much food, much oil, much clothing until Paru, the 
governor of the king, comes up to the country of the city of Jerusalem. Gone is 
Addaya, together with the guards of the vassals whom the king appointed. Let 
the king know that Addaya said to me: “Behold, I am going away; do not thou 
abandon it” (the city). This year send me men as guards and a governor, O 
Rime! end US, 2... eee I have sent to the king, my lord.......... , people, 
five thousand.......... three hundred and eighteen porters for the caravans of 
the king. They were indeed captured in the fields near the city Aijalon. (Cf. 
Josh.10:12.) Let the king, my lord, know that I am not able to send a caravan 
to the king, my lord. Indeed thou knowest it. Behold the king has set his 
name in the country of the city of Jerusalem forever and he ought not to aban- 
don the lands of the city of Jerusalem. 

To the scribe of the king, my lord, has Ebed-Hepa, thy servant spoken, saying: 
At the feet I, thy servant, prostrate myself. Take beautiful words to the king, 
my lord! A vassal of the king am I, exceedingly loyal (?) as regards thee. Also 
an evil deed has been done against me by the men of Kashi. I was all but killed 
by the men of Kashiin my house. May the king make investigation concerning 
them. Seven times and seven times, O king, justice is on my side. 


Iv! 


To the king, my lord, my sun-god, speak, saying, Ebed-Hepa, thy servant. 
At the feet of the king, my lord, seven times and seven times I prostrate myself. 
Behold the king, my lord, has set his name at the rising of the sun and the setting 
of the sun. It is slander which they have multiplied against me. Behold I am 
not a prefect; a vassal of the king, my lord,amI. Beholdlama shepherd of the 
king and one who brings tribute to the king, amI. Neither my father nor my 
mother, but the arm of the mighty king set me in the house of my father) 22°. 28% 
There came unto me....... I gave 10 slaves into his hand. Shuta, the governor 
of the king, came unto me. Twenty-one female slaves and eighty prisoners I 
gave into the hand of Shuta as a present to the king, my lord. Let the king take 
counsel for his land! Lost is the land of the king. All of it is taken from me. 
Enmity is against me. As far as the lands of Seir and as. far as Gath-Carmel 
there is peace among all the prefects, but enmity against me 1s practised. When I 
sent a man, then he said: “I do not see the eyes of the king, my lord, for hostility 
is against me.” I set once a ship on the sea when the mighty arm of the king 
took Naharina and Kapasi, but, behold the Habiri take the cities of the king. 
There is no prefect to the king, my lord; allare lost. Behold Turbazu was killed 
in the city gate of Zila and the king is inactive! Behold Zimridda of Lakish; his 
servants were enraged at him; he adhered to the Habiri. Yapti-Adda was 
killed in the city gate of Zili and there is no action! Concerning it the king 
makes no inquiry! Let the king care for his land and let the king turn his face 


1 Winckler und Abel, No. 104; Knudtzon, No. 288. 


406 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


to mercenaries for the land of tribute! For if there are no mercenaries in this 
year, lost, perished are all the lands of the king, my lord. Let not one say in the 
presence of the king, my lord, that the land of the king, my lord, is lost and all 
the prefects are lost. If there are no mercenaries in this year, then let the king 
send a governor to bring me and my brothers unto thee and we will die with the 
king, our lord. 

To the scribe of the king, my lord, saying, Ebed-Hepa, thy servant. At thy 
feet I prostrate myself. Bring beautiful words to the king. Emphatically thy 
servant and thy son am I. i 

V 


To the king, my lord, speak, saying, Ebed-Hepa, thy servant. At the feet of 
my lord I prostrate myself seven times and seven times. Behold Malkiel, he 
has not separated himself from the sons of Labaya and from the sons of Arzaya 
that they may seek the hand of the king for themselves. A prefect who has 
done this deed—why does not the king call him to account? Behold Malkiel and 
Tagi—the deed which they have done is this: formerly they took Rabuda and 
now they seek Jerusalem. If this land belongs to the king, why is it oppressed? 
Gaza has sided with the king. Behold the land of Gath-Carmel belongs to Tagi 
and the people of Gath are on guard in Beth-shean, and verily it will happen to us 
when Labaya and the land of Shechem have been given to the Habiri. Malkiel 
has written to Tagi and his sons: “Let our two forces grant all their desire to the 
people of Keilah.” Shall we indeed throw open Jerusalem? ‘The guards, whom 
thou didst send by the hand of Haya, son of Miare, Addaya took, stationing them 
in his house in Gaza and twenty men has he sent to Egypt. Let the king know 
that there are no royal guards with me! Itissoas the king lives! Verily Puru 
isbeaten. He has gone from meand isin Gaza. May the king remember it and 
may the king send fifty men as guards to protect the land! All the lands of the 
king are in revolt. Send Yinhenhame and let him care for the land of the king. 
To the scribe of the king, my lord, say: Ebed-Hepa, thy servant. Beautiful 
words give to the king. Ever emphatically am I thy servant. 


VP 


To the king, my lord, speak, saying, Ebed-Hepa, thy servant. At the feet of 
the king, my lord, seven times and seven times I prostrate myself. Behold the 
deed which Malkiel and Shuardatu have done against the country of the king, 
my lord! They have won over the soldiers of Gezer, the soldiers of Gath, and 
the soldiers of Keilah; they have seized the country of the city of Rubute. The 
country of the king is fallen away to the Habiri. And now also a city of the 
country of Jerusalem (its name is Beth-shemesh), a city of the king, has gone 
over to the men of Keilah. May the king hearken unto Ebed-Hepa, thy servant, 
and send mercenaries that the land of the king may remain unto the king. If 
there are no mercenaries, lost is the land of the king to the Habiri. This is the 
Sri ee Malkiel and Shuardatu have done.......... May the king care 

or his land! 


3. Their Light upon Conditions in the Period of the Egyptian 
Domination of Palestine. 
These letters are among the most interesting of the many fasci- 
nating documents which have come to us from ancient times. They 
1 Winckler und Abel, No. 105 plus No. 199; Knudtzon, No. 289. 


* Winckler und Abel, No. 106; Knudtzon, No. 290. 
8 The tablet reads Beth-Ninib, but scholars are agreed that it refers to Beth-shemesh. 


: 
; 
7 
1 
} 
| 


a 


—e 


———— 


SOME LETTERS FROM PALESTINE 407 


give us our first historical glimpse of Jerusalem, giving us a view of 
it 350 years before its capture by David. At this time its ruler 
was one Ebed-Hepa, a vassal of Amenophis IV, King of Egypt. 
Jerusalem was at the time the capital of a considerable territory. 
If the places mentioned have been rightly identified by scholars, its 
dominion extended to Mount Carmel on the northwest and as far 
as Rabbith in Issachar on the north. At the time these letters 
were written, Jerusalem was hard pressed by some invaders called 
Habiri, and Ebed-Hepa again and again appeals to the Egyptian 
king to send mercenaries in that year or all the territories of the king 
would be lost. Already the Egyptian army was composed in part 
of hired soldiers. We know from Egyptian sources that Amenophis 
was much more interested in religious reform than in statecraft. 
The desired troops were not sent, and apparently Ebed-Hepa was 
overcome, for his letters cease. 

The condition of Palestine, as revealed by these letters, is the 
same as that of Phoenicia as revealed by the letters of Rib-Adda. 
Egyptian authority was breaking up; each ruler was doing his best 
to look after his own interests; while invaders were overrunning 
the country. 

Who was Ebed-Hepa? All that we know of him is told in these 
letters. Hepa was, however, the name of a Hittite and Mitannian 
goddess. It has, accordingly, been inferred that Ebed-Hepa be- 
longed to that race. Ezekiel long afterward in speaking to Jeru- 
salem said: “The Amorite was thy father and thy mother was a Hit- 
tite” (Ezek. 16: 3,45). If this first ruler of Jerusalem known to us 
was a Hittite, as seems probable, it would be a striking confirmation 
of Ezekiel’s statement. Another interesting question is: Who were 
the Habiri who were invading Palestine when these letters were 
written? The answer to this question is not certain. Four differ- 
ent views have been held: 

1. They have been thought to be the same as the clan Heber 
which was afterward a part of the tribe of Asher, and which is also 
mentioned in connection with Malkiel in Gen. 46 : 17; Num. 26: 45, 
and 1 Chron. 7:31. The objection to this view is that the Habiri 
seem far too powerful in these letters to be simply the ancestors of 
such a clan. 

2. It has been held that the Habiri were a branch of the Hittites. 
This view is based upon the fact that among the tablets found by 
Winckler at Boghaz Koi a list of Hittite gods was headed “gods of 


408 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


the Habiri.” This is, however, not decisive, as the gods may have 
been Semitic gods, whom, after the fashion of antiquity, the Hittite 
scribe had identified with the deities of his own country. 

3. It has been held that the Habiri were Hebrews, and that we 
have here contemporary records of their wars of conquest. 

4. Some scholars maintain that it is impossible to tell who the 
Habiri were. | 

The writer is inclined to hold that the Habiri were Hebrews, 
though this view is not without difficulty. The indications of the 
book of Exodus point to Ramses II as the Pharaoh of the oppression 
and to Merneptah as the Pharaoh of the Exodus. These kings 
belonged to the nineteenth dynasty, while Amenophis IV, to 
whom Ebed-Hepa wrote his letters, belonged to the eighteenth. 
How then could Hebrews be already in Palestine struggling to con- 
quer it? The view has been held by a number of scholars that the 
Hebrew conquest took place in two parts, one of which was under 
the eighteenth and the other under the nineteenth dynasty. The © 
view is not without its difficulties, but it may prove to be true. If 
the Habiri were Hebrews, it seems necessary to suppose that it is 
true. Perhaps further discovery will throw more light upon it. 

The following letter, found in 1892 at Tell el-Hesy (Lachish) in 
Palestine, belongs to the same period as the preceding letters.1 


To the chief officer speak, saying: Pabi—at thy feet I prostrate myself. Thou 
shouldst know that Shiptibaal and Zimrida are conspiring together and Shipti- 
baal has said to Zimrida: “My father of the city Yarami has written to me: ‘Give 
me six bows and three daggers and three swords. IfI go out against the land of 
the king and thou wilt be the breath of life to me, then I shall surely (?) be supe- 
rior to it and shall subdue it.’ He who makes this plan is Pabu, so send him to 
me.”? Now I have sent thee Raphiel. He will bring to the chief officer news 
of this matter. 


Another letter from Taanach belongs to the same general period. 
It is one of four found by Sellin in 1903. It is as follows:? 


To Ishtarwashur speak, saying, Ahijah’—may the lord of the gods protect 
thy life! Thou art my brother and love is in thy bowels and in my heart. When 
I was detained in Gurra a workman gave to me two knives and a lance and two 
baskets (?) for nothing. As the lance was broken, he will repair it and send it by 
the hand of Buritpi. Again: is there lamentation over thy cities, or hast thou 
indeed put thyself in possession of them? Over my head is one who is over the 


1For the text cf. Hilprecht, Old'Babylonian Inscriptions, No. 17. See also Knudtzon, El- 
Amarna Tafeln, No. 333. 

2 Published by Hrozny in Sellin’s Tel/-Taanek, pp. 115 and 121. 

3In the Babylonian script, Ahi-ya-mi. 


SOME LETTERS FROM PALESTINE 409 


cities. Now let us see whether he will do good to thee. If his countenance is 
favorable there will be great destruction. Further: let Ilurabi enter Rahab and 
either send my man to thy presence or give him protection. 


This letter is chiefly interesting for the name A/i-ya-mi, which 
is probably the Babylonian equivalent of Ahijah or Ahi-Yahweh. 
If this is so, and, while not certain, there is considerable collateral 
evidence in its favor,! the divine name, Yahweh (Jehovah), was 
already known in Palestine. 

Another phrase in this letter which has recalled to some a Biblical 
phrase is ‘‘the lord of the gods.” This has been compared with 
Baal-berith (i. e., lord of the covenant), Judges 9 : 4, who. is later 
called El-berith (god of the covenant), Judges 9:46. Such a com- 
parison is, however, somewhat fanciful. 


1 See the writer’s article, ““ Yahweh before Moses,” in Studies in the History of Religions Presented 
to C. H. Toy, especially pp. 188-191. 


CHAPTER XVIII 


DOCUMENTS FROM THE TIME OF ISRAEL’S JUDGES 


REPORT OF WENAMON. ITs ILLUSTRATION OF CERTAIN POINTS OF BIBLICAL HISTORY 
ABOUT THE TIME OF DEBORAH OR GIDEON. REFERENCE TO THE PHILISTINES. 


THE following vivid story of adventure dates from about 1100 
B. C. and throws a vivid light on the condition of the coast-lands of 
Palestine and Phoenicia about the middle of the period of the Judges. 

1. Report of Wenamon.! 


Year five, third month of the third season (eleventh month), day 16, day of 
departure of the “eldest of the hall,” of the house of Amon, the lord of the lands, 
Wenamon, to bring the timber for the great and august barge of Amon-Re, king 
of the gods, which is on the river.......... called: ‘‘Userhet” of Amon. 

On the day of my arrival at Tanis at the palace of Nesubenebded and Ten- 
tamon, I gave to them the writings of Amon-Re, king of the gods, which they 
caused to be read in their presence; and they said: “I will do it, I will do it ac- 
cording to that which Amon-Re, king of our gods, our lord, saith.”’ I abode 
until the fourth month of the third season, being in Tanis. 

Nesubenebded and Tentamon sent me with the ship-captain, Mengebet, and 
I descended into the great Syrian sea, in the fourth month of the third season, on 
the first day. I arrived at Dor, a city of Thekel [a people kindred to the Philis- 
tines], and Bedel, its king, caused to be brought for me much bread, a jar of wine, 
and a joint of beef. 

Then a man of my ship fled, having stolen: 

.. [vessels] of gold, [amounting to] 5 deben 


4 vessels of silver, amounting to 20 deben 
a sack of silver 11 deben 
[Total of what] he [stole] 5 deben of gold. 


31 deben of silver. 

In the morning then I rose and went to the abode of the prince, and said to 
him: “T have been robbed in thy harbor. Since thou art the king of this land, 
thou art therefore its investigator, who should search for my money. For the 
money belongs to Amon-Re, king of the gods, lord of the lands; it belongs to 
Nesubenebded, and it belongs to Hrihor, my lord, and the other magnates of 
Egypt; it belongs also to Weret, and to Mekmel, and to Zakar-Baal, the prince 
of Byblos” [Gebal]. He said to me: “To thy honor and thy excellence! but, 
behold, I know nothing of this complaint which thou hast lodged with me. If 
the thief belonged to my land, he who went on board thy ship, that he might steal 
thy treasure, I would repay it to thee from my treasury till they find thy thief 
by name; but the thief who robbed thee belongs to thy ship. Tarry a few days 
here with me, and I will seek him.” When I had spent nine days moored in his 
harbor, I went to him and said to him: “Behold, thou hast not found my money, 


1 Taken from Breasted’s Ancient Records, Egypt, IV, pp. 278, ff. 
410 


FROM THE TIME OF ISRAEL’S JUDGES A411 


therefore let me-depart with the ship-captain, and with those who go.......... 
>» 


Reemeastiersain to me: “Be silent.... 6.02.00 0 eee ee eee the harbor 
NR aie e sks [I arrived at] Tyre. I went forth from Tyre at early dawn 
3B 2p eas Zakar-Baal, the prince of Byblos [Gebal]. 

Be etree Ss i the..........1 found 30 deben of silver therein. I seized it, 


[saying to them: “I will take] your money, and it shall remain with me until ye 
find [my money. Was it not a man of Thekel] who stole it, and no thief [of 
ours}? Twilltakeit.......... hey wentaway, WOuGw.... c+ cece asta ve 
TLV RINVEO: Coe a s. the harbor of Byblos [Gebal]. [I made a place of conceal- 
ment, I hid] ‘“Amon-the-way,” and I placed his things in it. The prince of 
Byblos sent to me, saying: ‘“Betake thyself from my harbor.” I sent to him, 
So es if they sail, let them take me to Egypt.”.......... 
I spent nineteen days in his harbor and he continually sent to me daily, saying: 
“Betake thyself from my harbor.” 

Now, when he sacrificed to his gods...... , the god seized one of his noble 
youths, making him frenzied, so that he said: ‘‘Bring [the god] hither! Bring the 
messenger of Amon who hath him. Send him and let him go.” 

Now, while the frenzied youth continued in frenzy during this night, I found a 
ship bound for Egypt, and I loaded all my belongings into it. I waited for the 
darkness, saying: “When it descends, I will embark the god also, in order that no 
other eye may see him.” 

The harbor-master came to me, saying: “Remain until morning by the prince.” 
I said to him: “Art not thou he who continually came to me daily, saying, ‘Be- 
take thyself away from my harbor’? Dost thou not say, ‘Remain in the [land’], 
in order to let depart the ship that I have found? thou that mayest come and 
say again, ‘Away’? He went and told it to the prince, and the prince sent to the 
captain of the ship, saying: ‘Remain until morning by the king.’”’ 

When morning came he sent and had me brought up, when the divine offering 
occurred in the fortress where he was, on the shore of the sea. I found him 
sitting in his upper chamber, leaning his back against a window, while the waves 
of the great Syrian sea beat against the........ behind him. I said to him: 
“Kindness of Amon!” He said to me: “How long is it until this day since thou 
camest away from the abode of Amon?”’ I said: “Five months and one day 


Then I was silent in this great hour. He answered and said to me: “On what 
business hast thou come hither?” I said to him: “I have come after the timber 
of the great and august barge of Amon-Re, king of gods. Thy father did it, thy 
grandfather did it, and thou wilt also doit.” So spake I to him. 

He said to me: “They didit, truly. If thou give me (something) for doing it, I 
will do it. Indeed my agents transacted the business; the Pharaoh,..... 
sent six ships, laden with the products of Egypt, and they were unloaded in their 


412 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


storehouses. And thou also shalt bring something for me.”’ He had the journal 
of his fathers brought in, and he had them read it beforeme. They found 1,000 
deben of every (kind of) silver, which was in his book. 

He said to me: “If the ruler of Egypt were the owner of my property, and I 
were also his servant, he would not send silver and gold, saying: ‘Do the com- 
mand of Amon.’ It was not the payment of tribute which they exacted of my 
father. As for me, I am myself neither thy servant nor am I the servant of him 
that sent thee. If I cry out to the Lebanon, the heavens open, and the logs lie 
here on the shore of the sea.” 


A long speech of Wenamon follows, in which he claims Egypt 
as the home of civilization, and claims Lebanon for Amon. He 
then continues: 


“Let my scribe be brought to me, that I may send him to Nesubenebded and 
Tentamon, the rulers whom Amon hath given to the north of his land, and they 
will send all that of which I shall write unto them, saying: ‘Let it be brought,’ 
until I return to the south and send thee all thy trifles again.” SospakeI to him. 

He gave my letter into the hand of his messenger. He loaded in the keel, the 
head of the bow and the head of the stern, with four other hewn timbers, to- 
gether seven; and he had them taken to Egypt. His messenger went to Egypt, 
and returned to me, to Syria in the first month of the second season. Nesuben- 
ebded and Tentamon sent: 

Gold: 4 Tb-vessels, 1 K’k-mn-vessel; 

Silver: 5 Tb-vessels; 

Royal linen: 10 garments, 10 hm-hrd; 

Papyrus: 500 rolls; 

Ox-hides: 500; 

Rope: 500 (coils); 

Lentils: 20 measures; 

Fish: 30 measures; 

She! sent me: 

Linenis¢ye.ne » 5 hm-hrd; 

Lentils: 1 measure; 

Fish: 5 measures. 

The prince rejoiced, and detailed 300 men and 300 oxen, placing overseers 
over them, to have the trees felled. They spent the second season therewith. ... 
In the third month of the second season (seventh month) they dragged them [to] 
the shore of the sea. The prince came forth and stood by them. 

He sent to me, saying: “Come.” Now, when I had presented myself before 
him, the shadow of his sunshade fell upon me. Penamon, a butler, he stepped 
between us, saying: ‘“The shadow of Pharaoh........ , thy lord, falls upon thee.” 
He was angry with him, saying: “Let him alone!” I presented myself before 
him, and he answered and said unto me: “Behold the command which my fathers 
formerly executed, I have executed, although thou for thy part hast not done 
for me that which thy fathers did for me. Behold there has arrived the last of 
thy timber, and there it lies. Do according to my desire and come to load it, 
for they will indeed give it to thee.” 

“Come not to contemplate the terror of the sea, (but) if thou dost contemplate 
the terror of the sea, thou shalt (also) contemplate mine own. Indeed I have 
not done to thee that which they did to the messengers of Khamwese, when they 
spent seventeen years in this land. They died in their place.” He said to his 
butler; ‘““Take him, and let him see their tomb, wherein they sleep.” 

1 “She” refers to Tentamon, the queen. 


FROM THE TIME OF ISRAEL’S JUDGES 413 


I said to him: “Let me not see it! As for Khamwese, (mere) people were the 
messengers whom he sent unto thee; but people......... there was no [god 
among] his messengers. And yet thou sayest, ‘Go and see thy companions.’ 
Lo, art thou not glad? and dost thou not have made for thee a tablet, whereon 
thou sayest: ‘Amon-Re, king of gods, sent to me ““Amon-the-way,” his [divine] 
messenger, and Wenamon, his human messenger, after the timber for the great 
and august barge of Amon-Re, king of gods? I felled it, I loaded it, I supplied 
him (with) my ships and my crews, I brought them to Egypt, to beseech for me 
10,000 years of life from Amon, more than my ordained (life), and it came to 
pass.’ Then in future days when a messenger comes from the land of Egypt, who 
is able to write, and reads thy name upon the stela, thou shalt receive water in 
the west, like the gods who are there.”’ He said to me: “It is a great testimony 
which thou tellest me.” 

I said to him: “As for the many things which thou hast said to me, when I 
reach the place of the abode of the High Priest of Amon, and he shall see thy 
command in thy command, [he] will have something delivered to thee.” 

I went to the shore of the sea, to the place where the timbers lay; I spied eleven 
ships, coming from the sea, belonging to the Thekel, saying: “Arrest him! Let 
not a ship of his pass to Egypt!” I sat down and began to weep. The letter- 
scribe of the prince came out to me, and said to me: ‘““What is the matter with 
thee?” I said to him: “Surely thou seest these birds which twice descend upon 
Egypt. Behold them! They come to the pool, and how long shall I be here, 
forsaken? For thou seest surely those who come to arrest me again.” 

He went and told it to the prince. The prince began to weep at the evil words 
which they spoke to him. He sent out his letter-scribe to me and brought me 
two jarsof wineandaram. Hesent tome Tento, an Egyptian singer (feminine), 
who was with him, saying: “Sing for him; let not his heart feel apprehension.” 
He sent to me, saying: “Eat, drink, and let not thy heart feel apprehension. 
Thou shalt hear all that I have to say unto thee in the morning.” : 

Morning came, he had (the Thekel) called into his oy , he stood in their 
midst and said to the Thekel: “Why have ye come?” They said to him: “We 
have come after the stove-up ships which thou sendest to Egypt with our...... 
comrades.” He said to them: “I cannot arrest the messenger of Amon in my 
land. Let me send him away, and ye shall pursue him, to arrest him.” 

He loaded me on board, he sent me away... .to the harbor of the sea. The 
wind drove me to the land of Alasa [Cyprus]; those of the city came forth to me 
to slay me. I was brought among them to the abode of Heteb, the queen of 
the city. I found her as she was going forth from her houses and entering 
into her other [house]. I saluted her, I asked the people who stood about her: 
“There is surely one among you who understands Egyptian?” One among 
them said: “I understand (it).” I said to him: “Say to my mistress: “I have heard 
as far as Thebes, the abode of Amon, that in every city injustice is done, but 
that justice is done in the land of Alasa; (but), lo, injustice is done every day 
here.’” She said: “Indeed! what is this that thou sayest?” I said to her: sdf | 
the sea raged and the wind drove me to land where I am, thou wilt not let them 
take advantage of me to slay me, I being a messenger of Amon. T am one whom 
they will seek unceasingly. As for the crew of the prince of Byblos whom they 
sought to kill, their lord will surely find ten crews of thine, and he will slay them 
on his part.” She had the people called and stationed (before her); she said to 
me: “Pass the night.........- He 


Here the papyrus, which contains this vivid personal narrative 
of travel, is broken off and the rest of the story is lost. We may be 


414 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


sure that Wenamon escaped from Cyprus and succeeded in reaching 
Egypt again, or the story would never have been told. 

2. Its Illustration of Certain Points of Biblical History. 

The story illustrates well a number of points in Biblical history. 
This adventure was approximately contemporary with the career 
of Deborah or of Gideon. It shows that the city of Dor, which was 
situated on the coast just south of Mount Carmel, was in the posses- 
sion of a tribe kindred to the Philistines, who soon afterward appear 
in Biblical history. We also learn from it that Egyptian authority 
in Palestine and Phcenicia, which was at the time of the El-Amarna 
letters so rapidly decaying, had entirely disappeared. Zakar-Baal 
stoutly asserts his independence, while the king of the Thekel is 
evidently quite independent of Egypt. The way in which these 
petty kingdoms deal with one another is quite after the manner of 
the international relations reflected in the book of Judges. The 
expedition of Wenamon to the Lebanon for cedar wood illustrates 
the way Solomon obtained cedar for the temple. 

Lastly, the way one of the noble youths became frenzied and 
prophesied, is quite parallel to the way in which Saul “stripped off 
his clothes and prophesied...... and lay down naked all that day 
and all that night” (1 Sam. 19 : 24). The heed which Zakar-Baal 
gave to this youth shows that at Gebal, as in Israel, such ecstatic 
or frenzied utterances were thought to be of divine origin. Later in 
Israel this sort of prophecy became a kind of profession, or trade. 
The members of these prophetic guilds were called ‘‘sons of the 
prophets.” The great literary prophets of Israel had nothing to do 
with them. Amos is careful to say that he is not a “son of a 
prophet” (Amos 7 : 14). 

3. Reference to the Philistines. 

Ramses III in his inscriptions makes the following statements:! 


“The northern countries are unquiet in their limbs, even the Peleset [Philis- 
tines], the Thekel, who devastate their land..................- O my august 
father [i. e., the god Amon] come to take them, being: the Peleset, the Denyen 
[Dardanians], and the Shekelesh [Sicilians]............ : 

Utterance of the vanquished Peleset: ‘Give to us the breath for our nostrils, 
O king, son of Amon.” 


The Peleset are undoubtedly the same people who appear in the 
Bible as the Philistines. Ramses III, of the twentieth dynasty, 
from whose inscriptions the above quotations are taken, reigned 

1 These statements are taken from Breasted’s Ancient Records, Egypt, IV, §§ 44, 81, and 82. 1 


FROM THE TIME OF ISRAEL’S JUDGES 415 


from 1198-1167 8.c. In his reign the Philistines were coming over 
the sea and invading northern Egypt along with other wanderers 
from different parts of the Mediterranean, the Thekel, the Danaol, 
and the Sicilians. Upon being repelled from Egypt by Ramses, 
they passed on and invaded Palestine. As the report of Wenamon 
shows, the Thekel were in possession of Dor by the year 1100, and 
no doubt the Philistines had gained a foothold also in the cities 
farther to the south, where we find them in the Biblical records 
(Judges 13-16; 1 Sam. 4-7; 13, 14; 17, 18, etc.). 

Amos says the Philistines came from Caphtor (Amos 9:7). 
This has long been supposed to be Crete. Eduard Meyer thinks 
that confirmation of this has now been found. A disc inscribed ina 
peculiar writing, which has not yet been deciphered, was found in 
July, 1908, at Phestos in Crete in strata of the third middle Minoan 
period, 7. e., about 1600 s. c.1. This writing is pictographic, and 
although not yet translated, appears to be a contract.” One of the 
frequently recurring signs represents a human head surmounted by 
a shock of hair (see Fig. 38), almost exactly like the hair of the 
Philistines as they are pictured by the artists of Ramses III on the 
walls of his palace at Medinet Habu (see Fig. 36). This sign was 
probably the determinative forman. This likeness would make the 
proof of the Cretan origin of the Philistines complete, were it not 
that some scholars think that the disc exhumed at Phestos had been 
brought thither from across the sea. This is possible, but does not 
seem very probable. The doubt will, perhaps, be resolved when we 
learn to read the inscription. 


1See Evans, Scripta Minoa, Oxford, 1909, pp. 22, ff., 273, ff. 
2See R.A.S. Macalister, The Philistines, Their History and Civilization, London, 1913, p. 83, ff. 


CHAPTER XIX 
ARCHAOLOGICAL LIGHT ON THE BOOKS OF KINGS 


GUDEA AND CEDAR-WOOD FOR HIS PALACE. THE ErponymM CANON. THE SEAL OF 
SHEMA. SHISHAK’S List OF CONQUERED ASIATIC CITIES. ASHURNASIRPAL’S DESCRIP- 
TION OF HIS EXPEDITION TO MEDITERRANEAN LANDS. SHALMANESER III’s C1artms 
REGARDING TRIBUTE FROM THE KINGS OF ISRAEL. THE MOABITE STONE. ADADNI- 
RARI IV’s MENTION OF THE “LAND OF Omri.” INSCRIPTION DESCRIBING TIGLATH- 
PILESER IV’s CAMPAIGN. SARGON’S CONQUESTS. ALLEGED TRACES OF THE TEN 
TRIBES IN EXILE. SENNACHERIB’S WESTERN CAMPAIGNS. ‘THE SILOAM INSCRIPTION. 
ESARHADDON’s List OF CONQUERED Kincs. ASHURBANIPAL’S SYRIAN CAMPAIGN, 
Necuo or Ecypt. NEBUCHADREZZAR II, Evit-MErRopAcH. DISCOVERIES IN SHEBA. 


1. Gudea and Cedar-Wood for His Palace. 

Gudea, a ruler of Lagash in Babylonia (the modern Telloh; see 
p. 48), who lived about 2450 B. c., rebuilt Eninnd, the temple of 
Ningirsu, at Lagash. In his account of the work he makes the 
following statement:! 


From Amanus, the mountain of cedar, cedar wood, the length of which was 
60 cubits, cedar-wood, the length of which was 50 cubits, wkarimnu-wood, the 
length of which was 25 cubits, for the dwelling he made; (from) their mountain 
they were brought. 


The Amanus mountains lay along the Mediterranean to the north 
of the river Orontes. They belong to the same general range as the 
Lebanons. Again, in the same inscription, Gudea says:? 


From Umanu, the mountain of Menua, from Basalla, the mountain of the 
Amorites, great cut stones he brought; into pillars he made them and in the 
court of Eninnt he erected them. From Tidanu, the mountain of the Amorites, 
marble in fragments (?) he brought. 


This passage shows that a ruler of Babylonia came to this region 
for cedar-wood and stones for his temple, as Solomon is said to have 
done (1 Kings 5, especially vs. 6 and 17; 2 Chron. 2:8, ff.). 
That Egyptian rulers did the same is clearly shown by the report of 
Wenamon. (See p. 410, ff.) 


1 See Sarzec, Découvertes en Chaldée, p. ix, col. v, 28, ff. See also Thureau-Dangin, Les inscrip- 
tions de Sumer et d’Akkad, Paris, 1905, p. 109, and his Sumerischen und akkadischen K dnigsin- 
schriften, Leipzig, 1907, p. 68, f. 

2 Ibid., col. vi, 3, ff. 


416 


LIGHT ON THE BOOKS OF KINGS 417 


2. The Eponym Canon. | 

The Assyrians kept chronological lists called by scholars ““Eponym 
Canons,” which are of great importance in determining the chro- 
nology of Hebrew history at a number of obscure points. A trans- 
lation of them has not been included in this work, since so few Bib- 
lical names occur in them that they would be of little use except to 
experts. Any who wish to consult them will find them translated in 
Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament, pp. 219-238. 

3. Jeroboam. 

During Schumacher’s excavation at Megiddo (see p. 96), a seal 
was found in the palace; it is shown in Fig. 27. Its inscription 
reads: 

Belonging to Shema, servant of Jeroboam. 


We have no means of knowing whether the Jeroboam referred to 
was Jeroboam I (1 Kings 12 : 12, ff.), or Jeroboam II (2 Kings 14: 
Apia 

4. Shishak. 

Sheshonk I (954-924 3s. c.), the founder of the twenty-second 
Egyptian dynasty, the Shishak of the Bible (1 Kings 14 : 25-28), 
has left on the walls of a pylon which he erected at the temple of 
Karnak a relief picturing his victory. The pictures are of the con- 
ventional type, but they are accompanied by a list of conquered 
Asiatic cities. Of these the names of about one-hundred and twenty 
are legible, though it is possible to identify but a small proportion 
of these with known localities. As it would be of no interest to the 
general reader to place before him the Egyptian spelling of unidenti- 
fied place names, only those are here given which have been identi- 
fied or have some Biblical interest. The numbers before each name 
designate its distance from the beginning of Sheshonk’s list. 
Among his conquered towns, then, are the following :! 


11. Gimty = Gath. 13. Rub’ty = Rabbith (Josh. 19 :20). 14. T’*ngy = 
Taanach (Josh. 12 : 21; Judges 5:19). 15. Sh’nm‘y = Shunem (Josh. 19 : 18; 
2 Kings 4:8). 16. B’tysh’nry = Beth-shean (Josh. 17-11) Samos 20; 
1 Kings 4:12). 17. Rwh’b’iy = Rehob (Judges 1:31). 18. H’pwrwmy = 
Haphraim (Josh. 19:19). 22. Myh’nm‘ = Mahanaim (Gen. 32 : 2; Josh. 13: 
26; 2 Sam. 2 :8;17:24). Q-b’-’-n’ = Gibeon (Josh. 10:1, f.). 24. Btyhwr’rwn 
= Beth-horon (Josh. 10:10; 1 Sam.13:18). 26. Iywrwa = Aijalon (Josh. 
10:12; 19:42). 27. Myqdyw = Megiddo (Josh. 12 : 21; Judges 1:27). 28. 
Idyrw’ = Edrei (Num. 21 : 33; Deut. 1:4; Josh. 12 : 4). 32. “rin? = Elon 


1 Translated from W. Max Miiller’s Egyptological Researches, Washington, D. C., 1906, Plates 
75-87, with a comparison of Breasted’s Ancient Records, IV, pp. 350-354. 


418 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


(Josh. 19 : 43). 38. Sh’wka = Soco (2 Chron. 11:7; 28:18). 39. B’tytpwh = 
Beth-tapuah (Josh. 15:53). 57. Dymrwm = Zemaraim (Josh. 18:22). 58. 
[M]gdrw = Madgala (Matt. 15:39 A. V.). 71, 72. P’hwgrw’ ’b’r’m = The 
field of Abram. 100. Jwdri’? = Addar (?) (Josh. 15:3). 124. B’ty‘nt = Beth- 
anoth (?) (Josh. 15 : 59). 


According to 1 Kings 14 : 25, ff., Sheshonk’s campaign was directed 
against Judah, and there is no hint that the northern kingdom 
suffered too. This may be because the interest of the author of 
Kings in the house of David and in Jerusalem was greater than his 
interest in the north. It is clear from the list of places just quoted 
that Sheshonk conquered both kingdoms. He either took or re- 
ceived tribute from Megiddo, Taanach, Shunem, and Beth-shean, 
cities in the great plain of Jezreel, but crossed the Jordan and cap- 
tured Mahanaim and Edrei. 

5. Ashurnasirpal. 

Ashurnasirpal, King of Assyria, 884-860 B. c., in describing his 
expedition to the Mediterranean lands, makes the following state- 
ment:! 

At that time I marched along Mount Lebanon, unto the great sea of the land 
of the Amorites I went up. In the great sea I cleansed my weapons. I made 
sacrifices to the gods. The tribute of the kings by the side of the sea, from the 
land of the Tyrian, the land of the Sidonian, the land of the Gebalite, the land of 
the Mahallatite, the land of the Maisite, the land of the Kaisite, the land of the 
Amorite, and the city Arvad, which is in the midst of the sea; silver, gold, lead, 
copper, copper vessels, garments of bright colored stuffs, cloth, a great pagutu, 
a small paguiu, ushu-wood, ukarinnu-wood, teeth of a sperm-whale porpoise, a 
creature of the sea, as their tribute I received; they embraced my feet. To 


Mount Amanus I ascended; beams of cedar, cypress, juniper, pine, I cut. Sac- 
rifices to my gods I offered. A pillar recording my warlike deeds I set up. 


This inscription records the first approach of an Assyrian king to 
Hebrew territory. He did not actually come into contact with the 
Israelites, though he took tribute from their neighbors, the Tyrians 
and Sidonians. The expedition of Ashurnasirpal was, however, the 
precursor of many others which progressed further. 

Ashurnasirpal, like Gudea and Hrihor, secured wood from this 
region for his buildings, thus affording another parallel to Solomon’s 
procedure. 

6. Shalmaneser III. 

Shalmaneser III, the son and successor of Ashurnasirpal, reigned 
from 859 to 825 B.c. He not only approached more closely to Pal- 
estine, but claims to have taken tribute from her kings. In the 


1See Le Gac, Les Inscriptions d’A3$ur-nasir-aplu IIT, Paris,"1908, p. 111, line 84, ff.; cf. also 
Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament, New York, 1912, p. 277, ff. 


LIGHT ON THE BOOKS OF KINGS 419 


case of King Jehu the claim is no doubt true. The following ex- 
tracts give the accounts in Shalmaneser’s own words.! 


In the eponym year of Dan-Ashur (7. ¢., 854 B. c.), month Aru, 14th day, I 
departed from the city of Nineveh; I crossed the river Tigris.......... to the 
city Qarqar I approached. Qargqar, his royal city, I destroyed, I devastated, 
I burned with fire. 1,200 chariots, 1,200 horsemen, 20,000 men of Hadadidri 
(Benhadad) of Damascus; 700 chariots, 700 horsemen, 10,000 men of Irhulina, 
the Hamathite; 2,000 chariots, 10,000 men of Ahab, the Israelite; 500 men of the 
Quzan (7. e., Que, in Cilicia); 1,000 men of the Musrzean; 10,000 chariots, 10,000 
men of the Irqantezan; 200 men of Matinu-ba’li, the Arvadite; 200 men of the 
Usantzean; 30 chariots, 10,000 men of Adunu-ba’li, the Shianian; 1,000 camels of 
Gindibu, the Arabian; 1,000 (?) men of Basa, son of Ruhubi, the Ammonite— 
these 12 kings he took as his helpers and they came to make battle and war 
against me. With the exalted power which Ashur, the lord, had given me, with 
powerful weapons, which Nergal, who goes before me, had presented me, I 
fought with them; from Qarqar to Gilzan I accomplished their defeat. 14,000 
of their troops I overthrew with arms, like Adad I poured out a flood upon them; 
I flung afar their corpses, I filled the plain with their mighty troops. With 
weapons I made their blood to flow.......... The field was too narrow for 
smiting (?) them, the broad plain (?) was used (?) for burying their bodies. 
With their corpses I dammed the Orontes as with a dam (?). In that battle 
their chariots, their horsemen, their horses, harnesses, and yokes I took. 


It is of especial interest that Ahab and Benhadad, two kings 
well known from the Bible, formed a part of the coalition that at- 
tempted to repel this first Assyrian invasion. Shalmaneser’s claim 
of victory is probably exaggerated, for he retired without further 
effort to subdue the country. Had it been as sweeping a triumph 
as he would have us believe, he would surely have pressed forward. 

Another of his inscriptions describes the battle of Qarqar as 
follows? 


In the 6th year of my reign from Nineveh I set out.......... unto Qarqar 
I approached. Hadadidri of Damascus, Irhulina, the Hamathite, together 
with twelve kings of the sea-coast, trusted in their own power and came to make 
war and fight with me. With them I fought. 25,000 of their fighting men I 
destroyed with arms. Their chariots, their horses, their implements of war I 
took from them. They fled to save their lives. I embarked on a ship and went 
out to sea. 


Four years later Shalmaneser records the subjugation of Car- 
chemish, on the Euphrates (cf. Isa. 10:9; Jer. 46:2). His account 
of it is brief and runs thus:? 


1 The text is published in Rawlinson’s Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, III,7,8. These 
lines are at the bottom of p. 8. Cf. also Craig, Hebraica, III, 220, ff., and Rogers, Cuneiform Paral- 
lels to the Old Testament, 295, ff. 

2 From Layard’s Inscriptions in the Cuneiform Character from the Assyrian Monuments, London, 
1851, p. 15. Cf. Delitzsch in Beitrage sur Assyriologie, VI, 146. 

3 Layard, op. cit., line 84, ff. 


420 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


In the 10th year of my reign (850 B. c.), the river Euphrates I crossed for the 
eighth time. The cities of Sangar, the Carchemishite, I devastated, I destroyed, 
I burned with fire. From the cities of Carchemish I departed and approached 
the cities of Arame. 


The next year Shalmaneser again tried conclusions with the kings 
of the west. His longer account of this runs as follows:! 


In the 11th year of my reign (849 B. c.) I set out from Nineveh. I crossed the 
river Euphrates at high water for the ninth time.......... At that time Hadad- 
idri of Damascus, Irhulina the Hamathite, together with twelve kings of the 
sea-coast, trusted to their own power and to make war and battle with me they 
came. I fought with them, I accomplished their defeat. 10,000 of their 
fighting men I slew with arms. Their chariots, horsemen, and implements of 
war I took from them. 


Shalmaneser’s third campaign against these kings is thus de- 
scribed :? 


In the 14th year of my reign I mustered the broad land without number. I 
crossed the Euphrates at high water with 120,000 troops. At that time Hadad- 
idri of Damascus and Irhulina, the Hamathite, together with twelve kings of the 
sea-coast, upper and lower, mustered their numerous armies without number and 
into my presence came. I fought with them, I accomplished their defeat. I 
brought away their chariots and horses, their implements of war I took from 
them; they fled to save their lives. 


A fourth campaign another inscription describes thus:* 


In the 18th year of my reign (842 B. c.), I crossed the river Euphrates for the 
sixteenth time. Hazael of Damascus (cf. 1 Kings 19 : 15, 17; 2 Kings 8) trusted 
to the great numbers of his forces and mustered his troops in large numbers. 
Saniru (i. e., Hermon, see Deut. 3 : 9), a mountain-peak at the side of Mount 
Lebanon, he made his fortress. I fought with him, I accomplished his defeat. 
16,000 of his fighting men I slew with arms. 1,121 of his chariots, 470 of his 
horses with his camp I took from him. He fled to save his life. I pursued him 
and in Damascus, his capital city, shut him up. I cut down his parks. I 
marched to the mountains of Hauran. Cities innumerable I destroyed, devas- 
tated, I burned with fire; their untold spoil I took as plunder. To the mountain 
of Bilirasi,4 a mountain at the head of the sea, I marched. My royal portrait in 
it I set up. At that time the tribute of the Tyrian, the Sidonian, and of Jehu, 
son of Omri, I received. 


The tribute of Jehu of Israel, mentioned in the last line of this 
inscription, is pictured on Shalmaneser’s black obelisk; (see Figs. 
295, 296). Above its various panels is the following inscription: 


1 Layard, op. cit., line 90, ff. 

2 Tbid., line 99, ff. 

From Rawlinson’s Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, III, 5, No. 6. The text is also 
published in Delitzsch’s Assyrische Lesestiicke, 4th ed., p. 51, ff. 

4 The cliff at the mouth of the Dog river, a short distance north of Beiriit. This portrait, with 
that of Ramses II and other kings, may still be seen carved in the cliff. 

’ From Abel und Winckler’s Keilschrifttexte, Berlin, 1890, p. 12. 


LIGHT ON THE BOOKS OF KINGS 421 


Tribute of Jehu, son of Omri: silver, gold, a bowl (?) of gold, a basin (?) of gold, 
cups of gold, pails (?) of gold, bars of lead, scepters (?) for the hand of the king 
and balsam wood I received from him. 


A fifth expedition is thus briefly described:' 


In the 21st year of my reign (839 B. c.), the river Euphrates I crossed, against 
the cities of Hazael of Damascus I went. Four of his cities I captured. The 
tribute of the Tyrian, of the Sidonian, and of the Gebalite I received. 


In still another inscription, which gives a summary of his wars, 
Shalmaneser compresses the account of his various wars in the west 
as follows:? 


At that time Hadadidri of the land of Damascus, together with 12 princes, his 
helpers,—their defeat I accomplished. 29,000 mighty warriors I prostrated like 
asimoom (?). The rest of his soldiers I cast into the river Orontes. They fled 
to save their lives. Hadadidriforsook hisland. Hazael, son of a nobody, seized 
the throne. He summoned his numerous soldiers and came to make war and 
battle with me. With him I fought, I accomplished his defeat. The wall of his 
camp I seized. He fled to save his life. I pursued him to Damascus, his capital 
city. 


7. The Moabite Stone. 

This stone, which bears an inscription of Mesha, King of Moab, a 
contemporary of King Ahab, was erected at Dibon (the modern 
Diban) on the north shore of the Arnon, where it was found in the 
last century. The upper portion of it was first seen by a Prussian 
clergyman, Rev. F. A. Klein, in the year 1868. Reports of its 
existence had previously reached the French scholar, Clermont- 
Ganneau, who was then in Jerusalem, and a squeeze of it was 
afterward taken by an Arab for this French scholar. Both the 
French and Prussian governments were desirous of obtaining it, and 
the Arabs, conceiving that they could obtain more money for it by 
selling it in parts, broke it up, thus greatly mutilating the inscrip- 
tion. Afterward the French obtained it, putting the pieces together 
again, and it may now be seen in the Louvre at Paris; (see Fig. 300). 
The inscription is as follows:? 


I am Mesha, son of Chemoshmelek, King of Moab, the Dibonite. My father 
tuled over Moab thirty years, and I ruled after my father. And I made this 


1 Layard, ap. cit., p. 10, line 102, ff. 

2 Messerschmidt, Keilschrifttexte aus Assur historischen Inhalts, Leipzig, 1911, No. 30, line 13, 
ff. Cf. Langdon’s translation Expository Times, Vol. XXIII, 1911, p. 69; also Rogers, Cuneiform 
Parallels, p. 298, ff. 

3 Translated from Smend and Socin’s Die Inschrift Mesa von Moab, Freiburg I. B., 1886. Cf. 
also Lidzbarski, Nordsemitische Epigraphik, Weimar, 1898, Tafel I; G. A. Cooke, North Semitic In- 
scriptions, Oxford, 1903, p. 1, ff.; Davis. in Hebraica, VII (1891), 178-182; Bennett, The Moabite 
Stone, Edinburgh, 1911; and Hastings, Dict. of the Bible, III, 406, ff. 


422 ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


high place to Chemosh in Qarhah (?) because of the deliverance of Mesha, because 
he saved me from all the kings and because he caused me to see [my desire] upon 
all who hated me. Omri, king of Israel—he oppressed Moab many days, be- 
cause Chemosh was angry with his land. And his son succeeded him, and he 
also said I will oppress Moab. In my day he spoke according to [this] word, but 
I saw [my desire] upon him and upon his house, and Israel utterly perished for- 
ever. Now Omri had possessed all the land of Medeba and dwelt in it his days 
and half the days of his son, forty years, but Chemosh restored it in my day. 
And I built Baal-meon and I made in it the reservoir (?), and I built Kiryathaim. 
And the men of Gad had dwelt in the land of Ataroth from of old and the king 
of Israel had built for himself Ataroth. And I fought against the city and took 
it, and I slew all the people of the city, a sight [pleasing] to Chemosh and to 
Moab. And I brought back from there the altar-hearth of Duda and I dragged 
it before Chemosh in Kiryoth. And I caused to dwell in it the men of Sharon (?) 
and the men of Meharoth (?). And Chemosh said to me: ‘Go take Nebo 
against Israel’’; and I went by night and fought against it from break of dawn 
till noon, and I took it and slew all, seven thousand. men, boys (?), and women, 
and girls, for I had devoted it to Ashtar-Chemosh. And I took from there the 
altar-hearths of Yahweh (Jehovah), and I dragged them before Chemosh. And 
the king of Israel built Jahaz and dwelt in it while he fought with me and Che- 
mosh drove him out from before me. And I took from Moab two hundred men, 
all its chiefs, and I led them against Jahaz and took it toadd unto Dibon. And 
I built Qarhah (?), the wall of the forests and the wall of the hill; and I built its 
gates and I built its towers, and I built the king’s house, and I made the sluices (?) 
for the reservoir of water in the midst of the city. And there was no cistern 
in the midst of the city, in Qarhah (?); and I said to all the people: “Make you 
each a cistern in his house;” and I cut the cuttings for Qarhah (?) with the help of 
the prisoners of Israel. I built Aroer and I made the highway by the Arnon. 
And I built Beth-bamoth, for it had been destroyed. And I built Bezer, for it . 


Was ity vinta: ore [ChiJefs of Dibon were fifty, for all Dibon was obedient. 
And I ruled a hundred.......... , in the cities which I had added to: the land. 
And I built [Mede]ba and Beth-diblathan. And [as for] Beth-baal-meon, there 
I placed sheep-raisers........... sheep of the land. And [as for] Horonaim 
there dwelt in it...... ATG oe Dae Chemosh said unto me: “Go down, fight 
against Horonaim,” and I went down and........... Chemosh in my day, and 
from "there. 22 cee es and Looe cee 


The author of this inscription is the Mesha mentioned in 2 Kings 
3:4. He is there said to have been a “sheep-master’’ (Hebrew, 
nogedh). Mesha appears to say in line 30 (the word is broken) that 
he placed nogedhim, “‘sheep-raisers,” or, “‘sheep-masters,” in Beth- 
baal-meon. The ndgédh was a raiser of a peculiar breed of sheep. 
Moab is excellent grazing land and raised a great many. 

In general the inscription supplements the Biblical narrative. 
It mentions persons and places well known from the Bible, and 
gives us an account of a series of events of which the Bible makes no 
mention. The Biblical account says nothing of Mesha’s. revolt, 
while Mesha in his turn says nothing of the campaign described in 
2 Kings 3. Neither document implies that the events described 
in the other did not occur; the two are written from two different 


LIGHT ON THE BOOKS OF KINGS 423 


points. of view and their authors selected the events which suited 
the purpose of the respective writers. In spite of this consideration 
there are some differences of statement which are perplexing. 

Mesha says in substance that Omri conquered Medeba and occu- 
pied it during his reign, half the reign of his son, a period of forty 
years, but Chemosh restored it to Moab in his (Mesha’s) day. It is 
said in 2 Kings 3 : 5, on the other hand, that ‘when Ahab was dead, 
the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.” According 
to 1 Kings 16 : 23-29, Omri reigned twelve years and Ahab twenty- 
two years. All the reign of Omri, and half of that of Ahab would, 
accordingly, be but twenty-three years. It is possible, however, 
as has been suggested by several scholars, that Mesha uses the 
word son to denote descendant, and that he refers to the war with 
Israel in the reign of Jehoram, son of Ahab, described in 2 Kings 
3 :6-27. Another suggestion, which seems more probable, is that 
the recapture of Medeba, mentioned near the beginning of Mesha’s 
inscription, occurred about the middle of the reign of Ahab, while 
the capture of Ataroth may have belonged to the period of Jehoram, 
the whole time from Omri to Jehoram being forty years. Some 
scholars have supposed that the Biblical chronology is in error and 
that Omri and Ahab together ruled some fifty years. This sup- 
position can hardly be correct, since the general accuracy of the 
chronology of this part of Kings is confirmed by the Assyrian in- 
scriptions. 

Mesha’s inscription mentions a number of places which the Bible 
also names, the Arnon (Num. 21 : 13, etc.; Deut. 2:24; 3:16, etc.), 
Aroer (Josh. 13:16), Ataroth (Num. 32:34), Baal-meon or Beth-baal- 
meon (Josh. 13 :17; Num. 32 : 38), Beth-bamoth' (Josh. 13: 17), 
Beth-diblathaim (Jer. 48 : 22), Bezer (Josh. 20 : 8), Dibon (Num. 
32 : 34; Josh. 13:17; Isa. 15:2), Horonaim (Isa. 15 :5), Jahaz 
(Josh. 13 : 18; Isa. 15: 4), Kerioth (Jer. 48 : 24), Kirathaim (Josh. 
13:19; Jer. 48 : 23), Medeba (Josh. 13 : 16; Isa. 15 : 2), and Nebo 
(Num. 32:38; Deut. 34:1; Isa. 15 : 2). 

8. Adadnirari IV. 

Adadnirari IV of Assyria (810-782 B. c.) has left an inscription 
which mentions Syria and Palestine. It reads as follows:? 


1In Joshua the name appears as Bamoth-baal. 

2 Translated from Rawlinson’s Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, Vol. I, p. 35, No. 1. 
Cf. also Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament, p. 305, ff., and the references there given 
to other translations. 


424 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Palace of Adadnirari, the great king, the mighty king, the king of the world, 
the king of Assyria, who conquered from the Euphrates, the Hittite country, the 
Amorite land in its entirety; Tyre, Sidon, the land of Omri, Edom, Palastu, to the 
coast of the great sea, where the sun sets, cast themselves at my feet; I imposed 
tribute and imposts upon them. To the land of Damascus I marched. Mari, 
King of Damascus, in Damascus his royal city I besieged. The fear of the luster 
of Ashur my lord overwhelmed him and he seized my feet and became subject. 
2,300 talents of silver, 20 talents of gold, 3,000 talents of copper, 5,000 talents of 
iron, variegated garments, linen (?), an ivory bed, an ivory couch (?) with inlaid 
border, his goods without measure I received in the palace in his royal city 
Damascus. 


“The land of Omri’ was the kingdom of Israel. Omri had made 
such an impression on the East that the Assyrians still so called it. 
“Palastu” is Philistia. Edom is here mentioned for the first time 
as paying tribute to an Assyrian king, but Judah is not mentioned; 
she was still free. Adadnirari was a contemporary of Jehoahaz and 
Jehoash of Israel, and of Joash and Amaziah of Judah. 

9. Tiglath-pileser IV. 

Tiglath-pileser IV, one of the greatest of Assyria’s kings, made 
several campaigns into the west and had a profound influence upon 
the fortunes of the Hebrew people. Unfortunately, his inscriptions 
have been greatly mutilated. Esarhaddon, a later king, determined 
to remodel Tiglath-pileser’s palace for his own use. Apparently he 
intended to erase Tiglath-pileser’s inscriptions from the wall-tablets 
which adorned the palace, in order to inscribe these tablets with his 
own. Esarhaddon died before the work had progressed very far, 
so that the inscriptions were not entirely ruined. The beginnings 
and ends of many lines are, however, entirely destroyed, and at some 
points deplorable gaps exist in the body of an inscription. Much 
that is of interest to the Biblical student can still be made out, as 
the following translation will show:' 


1,8 wal get Stee eee ee 

2. [In] the progress of my expedition the tribute of ki[ngs].......... 
Oo. Pas ean Azariah, the Yaudezan, like.......... 

4 ee Azariah of Yaudi in 240 ue. 4 

Dok. evan without number exalted to heaven.......... 

Oo toe in the eyes, when that which from heaven.......... 


{ae en by the onset of infantry.......... 
8. [the advance] of my powerful [troops] they heard and [their hearts] 
feared s.:.iy een 
pA ibs SCA IN ¢ I destroyed, devastated, burned with fire.......... 
LO. sionre te who had joined with Azariah and had strengthened him. 


1 Translated from Rawlinson’s Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, III, 9, No. 2, with a 
comparison of Rost, Die Keilschrifttexte Tiglath-pilesers III. 


LIGHT ON THE BOOKS OF KINGS 425 


8 es ee like-vines....5..... 

23. ..........Azariah, the Yaudean... 0.1...) my royal palace.......... 
10 Se a tribute like the [Assyrian I laid upon them.] 

30. ..........+.+...+...the city Bumame,! 19 districts 


31. of the city of Hamath, together with the cities of their environs on the 
shore of the western sea, which sinfully and wrongfully they had seized 
for Azariah, 

32. unto the territory of Assyria I added. I set my officers over them as 
governors. 30,000 men [I carried away captive] 

nee eh from their cities, in the city of Ku...... I settled them. 1,223 
people I settled in the province of Ullubu. 


Roe aS) Os ers) Set 6 66 6 8 6 « go 0. 6 6 = 6 6 hehe © 6 8 8 6 6 9 6 6 0) © 


Ee oe Tribute of Kushtashpi, the Kummukhite, Rezin, the Damascene, 
Menahem, the Samaritan, 

51. Hiram, the Tyrian, Sibitti-baal, the Gebalite, Urikke, the Queite, Pisiris 
of Carchemish, Eniel 

52. the Hamathite, Panammu, the Samalite, Tarhulara, the Gamgumalite, 
Sulumal, the Melidite, Dadilu, 

53. the Kaskite, Ussurmi, the Tabalite, Ushkitti, the Tunite, Urballa, the 
Tuhanite, Tuhammi, the Ishtundite, 

54. Urimme, the Hushimnite, Zabibe, Queen of Arabia, gold, silver, lead, iron, 
elephant-hide, ivory, 

55. variegated garments, linen cloths, purple and red wool, usku-wood, 
ukarinu-wood, costly things, a royal treasure, fat sheep whose wool 

56. was dyed red, winged birds of heaven whose wings were dyed purple, 
horses, mules, oxen and sheep, camels, 

57. she-camels, together with their foals, I received. 


This account relates to the campaign of 738 8. c. The Azariah 
referred to has been thought to be King Uzziah of Judah, who is 
called Azariah in 2 Kings 14:21 and 15:1-27. It is probable 
that he was an Azariah of Yadi, of northern Syria, mentioned in 
an inscription of Panammu, to whom Tiglath-pileser refers above, 
since the kings mentioned with him ruled in the north. Mana- 
hem of Israel (2 Kings 15 : 14-23) yielded to Tiglath-pileser, as did 
Rezin, of Damascus (2 Kings 15 :37 and 16: 5-9), but for some 
reason Azariah and Judah escaped. 

This inscription, fragmentary though it is, tells us that Tiglath- 
pileser now practised upon others the system of deportation from 
which Israel herself afterward suffered. He forcibly removed 
thousands from their homes to distant parts of the empire. This 
was an administrative measure, to prevent future rebellion. Per- 
sons who had been influential at home among their own people 
would be powerless to foment trouble in the midst of strange sur- 
roundings and neighbors of an unfriendly race. 


1 Translated from Rawlinson, ibid., No. 3. 


426 


ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


The following relates to the campaign of 733-732: 


LS ees Ih ee eeren his warriors I captured.......... I overthrew with 
my weapons. 

Ds sas ak hve sis WRT Canela cee DS oe ee before him. 

3, the charioteers duds Joe eee their weapons I broke. 

4. the[ir chariots and] horses I seized.......... his bowmen.......... 

ioe ce who carried shields and spears my hands overthrew, their 

attle 

OSE PEO to save his life he fled alone and 

iio tee like a mouse (?) entered the gate of his city. His captains 
alive 

8. [my hands captured and on] stakes I hung them and exhibited them to his 
land. 45 people (?) from his camp 

pI Gee Ay I brought together before his city, and I shut him in like a bird in a 
cage. His parks 

qU CS his orchards, which were without number, I cut down and did not 
leave one. 

1} (BEN ee aati: Hadara, the home of the father of Rezin of Damascus, 

12. [the place where] he was born, I besieged, I captured. 800 people, to- 
gether with their possessions, 

RE ae vers their cattle, and sheep I took as spoil. 750 prisoners of the city 
Kurussa, 

1a eta prisoners of the city Irma, 550 prisoners of the city Mituna, I cap- 
tured. 59lvcities sro 

fhe ee acg he of 16 districts of Damascus like a deluge heap I destroyed. 

10 CN os ep acne eae Hanno of Gaza? 

20. fled before my weapons and escaped to Egypt. The city, Gaza, 

21. [I captured. His goods], his possessions, his gods [I took as spoil]...... 
my royal image 

py CARS Rea Bick RM Ty RE in the palace of [Hanno I set up]. 

27. The country of the house of Omri.......... all its people, 

28. [and their possessions] I carried away unto Assyria. Pekah, their king, 
they had overthrown. Hoshea 

29. [as king] over them I placed. 10 talents of gold...... talents of silver I 
received as tribute from them. 

57. Tribute’ of Kushtashpi, the Kummuchite, Urikki, the Queite, Sibittibaal, 
the Gebalite, Pisiris, the Carchemishite,] 

58. Eni-el, the Hamathite, Panammu, the Samalite, Tarhulara, the Gurgum- 
ite, Sulu[mal, the Melidite, Dadilu, the Kaskite], 

59. Ussurmi, the Tabalite, Urassurme, the Tabalite, Ushhitti, the Tunite, 
Urballa, the Turhanite, Tuhamm[e, the Ishtundite, Urimme, the 
Hushimnite], 

60. Matanbaal, the Arvadite, Sanipu, the Beth-Ammonite, Salamanu, the 
Moabite.<; Soe eee 

61. Mitinti, the Askelonite, Jehoahaz [Ahaz], the Judean, Kaushmalaka, 


the Edomite, Mus............ 


1 Translated from Layard, Inscriptions in the Cuneiform Character, with a comparison of Rost. 


op. cté. 


2From Rawlinson, of. cit., 10, No. 2, with a comparison of Rost, op. cit. 
3 From Rawlinson, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 67. 


! 
‘ 
. 
4 
' 


LIGHT ON THE BOOKS OF KINGS 427 


62. Hanno, the Gazaite, gold, silver, lead, iron, tin, variegated garments, 
linen, red cloths of their lands, 

63. every costly thing, products of sea and dry land produced by their coun- 
tries, royal treasures, horses, mules, harnesses........ [I received. ] 


The record of this campaign, fragmentary as it is, shows how com- 
pletely Tiglath-pileser conquered the west. He accomplished the 
overthrow of Damascus, which his predecessors had been trying in 
vain to do for more than a hundred years. His invasion of northern 
Israel led to the overthrow of Pekah, and the deportation as cap- 
tives to other parts of the empire of numerous Israelites. This 
confirms 2 Kings 15: 29, 30. It was this conquest of Damascus 
and Israel that fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy given in 735 B. c. (Isa. 
7:16). It was while Tiglath-pileser was at Damascus, receiving 
the tribute, that Ahaz, whose full name was Jehoahaz, went to 
Damascus to carry his tribute,—an act which prevented the in- 
vasion of Judah by Assyria at this time. While Ahaz was in 
Damascus, he saw the altar of which a copy was made for the temple 
in Jerusalem (2 Kings 16: 10, ff.). The list of kings from whom 
Tiglath-pileser received tribute contains many Biblical names. Not 
only Israel and Judah, but the Philistine cities, Edom, Moab, 
Ammon, Damascus, Hamath, the Phcenician cities of Gabel and 
Arvad, Samal in the extreme north of Syria, Que in Cilicia, and 
Carchemish on the Euphrates, were all drawn into his net. 

10. Sargon, 722-705 B. C. 

Tiglath-pileser IV was succeeded by Shalmaneser V, who ruled, as 
the eponym canon shows, from 727 to 722 B. c. On account of a 
rebellion of Hoshea, King of Israel, Shalmaneser overran his king- 
dom and besieged Samaria for three years, as recorded in 2 Kings 
17 : 3-5. Before the city fell, however, Shalmaneser had passed 
away and Sargon, the founder of a new dynasty, was on the throne 
of Assyria. In Sargon’s first year Samaria fell into the hands of the 
Assyrian army; Sargon counted this as his own victory and tells of 
it in the following words:! 


At the beginning of my reign, in my first year...... Samaria I besieged, I 
captured. 27,290 people from its midst I carried captive. 50 chariots I took 
there as an addition to my royal force.......... I returned and made more than 
formerly to dwell. People from lands which my hands had captured I settled 
in the midst. My officers over them as governors I appointed. Tribute and 
taxes I imposed upon them after the Assyrian manner. 


1From Winckler’s Keilschrifitexte Sargons, p. 1, line 10, f. 


428 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


In another inscription the following summary account occurs:! 


From the beginning of my reign to my 15th year, the defeat of Humbanigash, 


the Elamite, in the environs of Durilu I accomplished. Samaria I besieged, I 
captured; I carried captive 27,290 people who dwelt in it; 50 chariots I took from 
them, and permitted the rest to keep their possessions (?), and placed my gover- 
nor over them and imposed on them the tribute of the former king. 


These statements confirm 2 Kings 17 :6 and 24, ff. In one re- 
spect they throw an interesting light upon the captivity of Israel. 
Only 27,290 people were transported at this time. True, Tiglath- 
pileser IV had previously transported the inhabitants of several 
towns of Galilee. (See 2 Kings 15 : 29, and his inscriptions trans- 
lated above.) When we put together all those who were deported, 
however, they were but a fraction of the population. As Sargon 
distinctly says, the others remained there. They intermarried with 
the settlers whom he brought in and became the ancestors of the 
sect of Samaritans. The “ten lost tribes” were not “lost,” as is 
often popularly supposed to have been the case. 

The first of the inscriptions quoted above contains also the fol- 
lowing passage :? 


In the second year of my reign Ilubidi, the Hamathite...... collected his 
numerous troops at Qarqar. The oath [of Ashur he despised]. Arpad, Simirra, 
Damascus, Samaria, he made rebellious against me..................... ib’u, 


numerous possessions. 


The Sib’u of this inscription is probably the same as So, King of 
Egypt, in 2 Kings 17:4. He cannot be identified with any known 
Egyptian king. He was probably a prince of a nome of the Delta. 
The above is Sargon’s description of the battle of Raphia, which 
occurred in the year 7208. c. This campaign was an aftermath of 
the fall of Samaria. 


717 B.C. 


[Sargon],’ the exalted prince, who came upon Hummanigash, the King of 
Elam, in the environs of Durilu and accomplished his overthrow, who reduced 


1 Translated from Winckler, of. cit., p. 30, No. 64, 23, f. 
2 Ibid., pp. 1, 2, beginning at p. 1, No. 2, line 10. 
3 Ibid., p. 48, line 8, ff. 


LS 


LIGHT ON THE BOOKS OF KINGS 429 


to submission Yaudi, the place of which was distant, who d troyed H 
whose hands captured Yaubidi. ch as hata amath, 


This Yaudi has been taken by some scholars for Judah, but it 
was probably the kingdom in northern Syria mentioned by Tig- 
lath-pileser IV and in the inscription of Panammu, of Samal, the 
modern Zendjirli. We know of no Assyrian invasion of Judah at 
this time. 


The tribute of Pharaoh, King of Egypt, of Samsi, the Queen of Arabia, Ith- 
amara, the Sabean, gold, the...... of the mountain, horses, and camels, I 
ti + 

_ Yaubidi, the Hamathite, a soldier (?), with no right to the throne, a bad Hit- 
tite, had set his heart on the kingdom of Hamath ; he caused Arpad, Simirra, 
Damascus, and Samaria to rebel against me, made them of one intent and col- 
lected for battle. The whole army of Ashur I mustered and in Qargar, his favor- 
ite city, I besieged him together with his soldiers. I captured Qarqar, I burned 
it with fire. His skin I flayed and the partakers of his sin I killed in their cities ; 
I established peace. 200 chariots and 200 horsemen I collected from the people 
of Hamath, and added to my royal force. 


This passage records the overthrow of Hamath and Arpad (Isa. 
10 : 9), and mentions the tribute of a king of Sheba, the account of 
the coming of whose queen to Solomon is found in 1 Kings 10 : 1 mite 


711 B. C. 


Azuri, King of Ashdod, planned in his heart not to pay tribute, and among 
the kings of his neighborhood disseminated hatred of Assyria. On account of 
the evil he had done I cut off his lordship over the people of his land. I ap- 
pointed Ahimiti, his younger (?) brother to the kingship over them. But the 
Hittites, planning evil, hated him and exalted over them Yamani, who had no 
claim to the throne, and who, like them, knew no fear of authority. In the anger 
of my heart the mass of my army I did not muster, I did not assemble my camp. 
With my usual bodyguard I marched against Ashdod. Yamani heard of the 
progress of my expedition from afar and fled to the borders of Egypt, which lies 
by the side of Melucha, and was seen no more. Ashdod, Gath, Ashdudimmu, 
I besieged, conquered. I took as spoil his gods, his wife, his sons, his daughters, 
his possessions, the treasures of his palace, together with the people of his land. 
I seized those cities anew, and settled in them peoples of lands I had captured 


from among [the lands] of the east.......... With the people of Assyria I 
numbered them, and they bore my yoke. The king of Melucha, who among 
ee an inaccessible place, a road......whose fathers from ancient days as 


far back as the moon-god, his father, had sent no messengers to my fathers to 
pay their respects, heard from afar of the might of Ashur, Nabu, and Marduk; 
the fear of the luster of my royalty covered him and fright was poured over him. 
He cast him [Yamani] into bonds, fetters of iron, and brought him before me 
into Assyria,—a long journey.” 


1From Winckler, op. cit., p. 31, lines 27, ff. and 33, ff. 2 Ibid., p. 33, line 90, ff. 


430 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Another fragmentary account runs thus:! 


In the 9th [error for 11th] year of my reign I marched.......... to the coast 
of the great sea......Azuri, King of Ashdod,.......... Abimith :. cuca his 
younger (?) brother.......... 1 exalted Over them: aaa tribute and taxes 
of my lordship...... like those of...... kings, I imposed upon them...... The 
Sy inlaws in order not to pay tribute.......... their princes. ...35 008 
they drove him away.......... Yamani, a soldier, they appointed to kingship 
over them. Their’city.......... in its environs a moat.......... cubits in 
depth they dug, they reached the water-level.......... To [punish] Philistia, 
Judah, Edom, Moab, who inhabit the sea-coast, payers of tribute, and taxes to 
Ashur, my lord. Planning rebellion and untold evil against me, they bore their 
pledges to Pharaoh, King of Egypt, a prince who could not help them, and sought 
his aid. I, Sargon, the faithful prince, who honors the oath of Nabu and 
Marduk, who guards the name of Ashur, caused my trusty troops to cross the 
Tigris and Euphrates at high water. As for him, Yamani, their king, who had 
trusted to his own power, and had not submitted to my lordship, he heard of the 
advance of my army. The fear of Ashur, my lord, cast him down, and to...... 
which is on the bank of the river...... waters...... his land...... far away 
eee he fled......Ashdod...... 


The two passages just translated are Sargon’s accounts of the 
events alluded to in Isa. 20:1. These events were the occasion 
of the prophecy there recorded. Until the discovery of the palace 
of Sargon by Botta in 1845, this passage in Isaiah was the only 
place in extant literature where the name of Sargon had been pre- 
served. 

In the last of the passages just quoted, Sargon speaks as though 
he had also punished Judah on this expedition. There is no direct 
allusion to this in the Bible unless it be the vivid. description in Isa. 
10 : 28-32, where an approach of an Assyrian army to Jerusalem 
from the north is described. It is difficult to date those verses un- 
less they also refer to this expedition of 711 B. c. 

11. Alleged Traces of the ‘‘Ten Tribes” in Exile. 

In 2 Kings 15 : 29 it is said that Tiglath-pileser [IV] captured 
certain cities in Galilee, and carried their inhabitants captive to 
Assyria. In 2 Kings 17 : 6 it is said that when Samaria was de- 
stroyed by the Assyrian king [Sargon, in 722 B. c.], Israelites were 
carried captive to Halah and Gozan, which were situated on the 
Kahbur River in Mesopotamia. 

Two groups of cuneiform tablets, one in the museum at Berlin, 
the other in the British Museum, are thought to confirm these 
statements by the evidence they give that Hebrews who rever- 


1 From Winckler’s work previously cited, p. 44. 


LIGHT ON THE BOOKS OF KINGS 431 


enced Jehovah were living in that region.1 The evidence con- 
sists chiefly of a divine name A-u, employed as a component part 
of proper names just as Jo- and Jeho-, abbreviations of the name of 
Jehovah, are employed in Hebrew proper names in the Old Testa- 
ment. Indeed, A-u is the form that Jo- or Jeho- would take, if 
expressed in Assyrian characters. 

The names in question occur in a series of documents which 
record the transfer of slaves. If the men in question were Hebrews 
they would seem to have been interested in the business of buy- 
ing and selling slaves. The documents are much alike. It will 
suffice to translate one of them: 


. Seal of Atarkhasis, 

. son of Aushezib, 

the Kannuean, 

. owner of the slave-girl. A transfer 

. of Kabili, his slave-girl he 

. has made, and Nabushallimshunu 

. for the price of 14 manas of silver 

. has taken her. The money in full 

. is paid. That slave 

10. is purchased and delivered. Whoever in the future 
11. at any time shall rise up and 

12. lay claim, whether Atarkhasis 

13. or his sons,—whoever against 

14. Nabushallimshunu or his sons 

15. legal process 

16. shall begin, 10 manas of silver 

17. shall pay. Against an attack of rheumatism for 100 days 
18. and legal claim for all time (he is guaranteed). 
19. Month Airu, 17th day, 

20. eponym of Ashurrimani, rabshekeh. 

21. In the presence of Padi, 

22. In the presence of Khani, 

23. In the presence of Ashurnadinakhi, 

24. In the presence of Tubusu, 

25. In the presence of Belbelshaduni, 

26. In the presence of Ilumia. 

27. In the presence of Ashurikhtamusur 

28. In the presence of Bariku, 

29. In the presence of Kennusharruni. 


WONT OA UR te 


The significant name here is Aushezib, meaning, “Au saves.” 
If Aw is a translation of Jeho-, the name, in its entirety, would be a 
translation of one of the Hebrew forms of the name Joshua. 


1See S. Schiffer, Keilschriftliche Spuren in der sweiten Halfte des 8ten Jahrhunderts von den 
Assyrern nach Mesopotamien deportierten Samarier, Berlin, 1907. 

The text of the Berlin tablets was published by Ungnad in Vorderasiatische Schriftdenkméler, I, 
Leipzig, 1907, Nos. 84-94, 101, 104. Those in the British Museum, by Johns, in Assyrian Deeds 
and Documents, I, Cambridge, 1898, Nos. 22, 69, 73, 74, 98, 153, 154, 170, 229, 234, 245, 312. 


432 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Other names, into which the name of the god Aw enters, appear 
sometimes in the body of a contract and sometimes among the 
witnesses. They are “A-u-salim, “the god Au gives peace”; 
A-u-iddina, “Au gives,” equivalent to the Hebrew Jonathan; 
A-u-akhiddin, ‘“‘Au has increased the brothers”; A-u-daninani, 
“Au is our mighty-one”; A-u-e-ballitani, “O Au, make us live”; 
# A-u-dan(?)-ilani, “Au is judge of the gods”; A-u-sabi, “Au 
satisfies.’’! 

The tablets were written at Kannu, a place otherwise unknown, 
which was near Haran in Mesopotamia. One text states that 
if the seller of the slave ever brings legal action, he shall pay 
ten silver manas and one gold mana “‘at the sanctuary of the god 
A-u, who dwells in Kannu.” If the god A-u be really the Hebrew 
Jehovah, the captives from Samaria and Galilee had built for him 
a temple in Kannu, as the Jews at Elephantine afterward did on 
the island in the Nile. (See p. 387, f.) 

The documents in which these names occur appear to be dated 
between 666 and 606 B. c. They are dated according to the 
Assyrian method of dating, which shows that they were written 
under the Assyrian monarchy, but the eponyms in which they are 
dated are not found in the extant portions of the Assyrian Eponym- 
list. They were therefore written after the year 666.2 This fixes 
the dates of these documents in the seventh century—the century 
after Tiglath-pileser IV and Sargon transported to this region 
parts of the ten “lost tribes,” and, if A-w really is a form of the 
name Jehovah, these tablets afford us a little glimpse of some of 
these Hebrews in exile. 


12. Sennacherib, 705-681 B. C. 


Campaign of 701! 


In my third expedition I went to the land of the Hittites. The fear of my 
lordship overthrew Luli, King of Sidon, and he fled to a distance in the midst of 
the sea. His land I subdued. Great Sidon, little Sidon, Beth-zét, Zareptah, 
Mahalliba, Ushu, Achzib, Accho, his strongholds, his fortresses, the places of his 
food and drink, the forts in which he trusted, the might of the weapons of Ashur, 
my lord, overthrew them and they submitted to my feet. I caused Tubal to sit 
on the royal throne over them, and imposed upon him the yearly payment of 
tribute as the tax of my lordship. Minhimmu, the Shamsimurunian, Tubalu, 
the Sidonian, Abdiliti, the Arvadite, Urumilke, the Gebalite, Mitinti, the Ashdod- 
ite, Puduilu, the Beth-Ammonite, Kammusunadbi, the Moabite, Milkirammu, 


1From Abel und Winckler’s Keilschrifttexte, p. 18, col. ii, 34, ff. 


Se ee ee ee ee ee ee ee 


Se eo —— 


a, a 


LIGHT ON THE BOOKS OF KINGS 433 


the Edomite, kings of the Westland, all of them, an extensive district, brought 
eee heavy tribute together with their possessions into my presence and kissed 
my feet. 

And Sidqa, the King of Askelon, who had not submitted to my yoke, the gods 
of the house of his father, himself, his wife, his sons, his daughters, his brothers, 
the seed of the house of his father I took away and brought him to Assyria. 
Sharruludari, the son of Rukibti, their former king, I placed over the people of 
Askelon, and imposed upon him the payment of tribute as an aid to my rule, 
and he bore my yoke. In the progress of my expedition Beth-Dagon, Joppa, 
Banabarka, Azuru, the cities of Sidqa, who had not with alacrity submitted to 
my feet, I besieged, I captured, I took their spoil. The governors, princes, and 
people of Ekron, who had cast into fetters of iron Padi, their king, my ally, bound 
by Ashur’s oath, and had delivered him to Hezekiah, the Judzan, who as an 
enemy imprisoned him,—their hearts feared. The kings of Egypt, the soldiers, 
bows, chariots, and horses of the king of Meluhu, an unnumbered force, they 
summoned, and they came to their aid. In the environs of Elteke the battle 
array was drawn up before me; they asked for their weapons. In the might of 
Ashur, my lord, I fought with them and accomplished their defeat. My hands 
took alive in the midst of the battle the commander of the chariots and the sons 
of the Egyptian king, together with the commander of the chariots of the king of 
Meluhu. Elteke [and] Timnath I besieged, captured and took their spoil. I 
approached Ekron. The governors and princes who had committed sin I killed 
and on stakes round about the city I hung their bodies. The citizens who had 
committed wickedness and rebellion I counted as spoil. I declared the right- 
eousness of the rest of them, who had committed no sin and rebellion and in 
whom was no wickedness. I brought Padi, their king, out of the midst of Jeru- 
salem, and on the throne of dominion over them I placed, and imposed the trib- 
ute of my over-lordship upon him. 

And as to Hezekiah, the Judzan, who had not submitted to my yoke, 46 of his 
strongholds, fortified cities, and smaller cities of their environs without number, 
with the onset of battering rams and the attack of engines, mines, breaches, and 
axes (?), I besieged, I captured. 200,150 people, small and great, male and 
female, horses, mules, asses, camels, oxen, and sheep without number I brought 
out of their midst and counted as booty. He himself I shut up like a caged bird 
in Jerusalem, his capital city; I erected beleaguering works against him, and 
turned back by command every one who came out of his city gate. The cities, 
which I had captured, from his country I cut off and gave them to Mitinti, King 
of Ashdod, Padi, King of Ekron, and Sillibaal, King of Gaza, and diminished his 
land. In addition to the former tribute, their yearly tax, I added a tax as the 
impost of my over-lordship and laid it upon them. As to Hezekiah himself, the 
fear of the luster of my lordship overcame him and the Urbi and his favorite 
soldiers, whom he had brought in to strengthen Jerusalem, his capital city, 
deserted. With 30 talents of gold, 800 talents of silver, precious stones, rouge, 
dakkast, lapis lazuli, great angugmi-stones, beds of ivory, stationary ivory thrones, 
elephants’ hide, ivory, ushu-wood, ukarinnu-wood, all sorts of objects, a heavy 
treasure; also his daughters, the women of his palace, male and female musicians 
he sent after me to Nineveh, my capital city, and sent his messenger to present 
the gift and to do homage. 


Inscription under Lachish-picture, 701 B. C. 


Sennacherib, king of the world, King of Assyria, sat on his throne, and the 
spoil of the city of Lachish passed before him;! (see Fig. 298). 


1 From Winckler’s Keilschrifitextbuch, 1892, p. 36. 


434 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Expedition against Merodachbaladan, 703 B. C. 


In my first expedition I accomplished the defeat of Merodachbaladan, King 
of Babylon, together with the forces of Elam, his ally, in the environs of the city 
of Kish. In the midst of that battle he left his camp and fled alone; he saved his 
life. The chariots, horses, wagons, and mules, which at the onset of battle he 
had left, my hands captured. I entered joyfully into his palace which was in 
Babylon. I opened his treasure-house; gold, silver, gold and silver utensils, 
precious stones of all kinds, his untold treasured possessions, a great booty; the 
women of his palace, princes, his body-guards, male and female musicians, 
the rest of his troops as many as there were, and the servants of his palace I 
brought out and counted as spoil. 


Campaign against Arabia (between 688 and 682) 


Telhunu, the Queen of Arabia, in the midst of the desert—from her I took... 
camels. The [luster of] my [lordship] overthrew her and Hazael. They left 
their tents and fled to Adummatu, which is situated in the desert,...... a thirsty 
place, where there is neither food nor drink.’ 


_ The material contained in the first two passages just quoted from 
Sennacherib is parallel in a general way to 2 Kings 18, 19 and Isa. 
36, 37. All Biblical students recognize that these two chapters in 
Isaiah are practically identical with the two in Kings. In discussing 
the parallelism, therefore, we shall refer to 2 Kings 18, 19 only. 
With reference to the bearing of this Assyrian material upon the 
Biblical narrative there are three different views which have been 
entertained by three groups of scholars. 

1. One view, which was first expressed by the late Prof. Schrader,’ 
of Berlin, is that the inscription of Sennacherib, while differing from 
the Biblical. account in some particulars, really confirms it at nearly 
every point. Sennacherib, though he claims to have diminished 
Hezekiah’s territory, and to have received from him a heavy tribute, 
does not claim to have taken Jerusalem. According to 2 Kings 
18 : 14, ff., Hezekiah submitted to Sennacherib, sending his mes- 
senger to Lachish for the purpose, and paid him a heavy tribute; 
according to 2 Kings 19 : 35, ff., a great disaster so weakened Sen- 
nacherib’s army that he was obliged to withdraw. Schrader called 
attention to the close correspondence between. 2 Kings 18 : 14 and 
Sennacherib. Both state that Hezekiah paid 30 talents of gold, 
though they differ as to the amount of silver, Kings making it 300 
talents, while Sennacherib makes it 800. It was supposed that the 
numbers in the case of the silver were really equivalent to one an- 
other, the present divergence being due to textual corruption. 


1From Abel und Winckler’s Keilschrifttexte, p. 17, line 9, ff. 
2From Vorderasiatische Schriftdenkmdler der kiniglichen Museen au Berlin, I, 75. 
3 Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, 1872, 168, ff. 


LIGHT ON THE BOOKS OF KINGS 435 


Assyrian kings never record their failures, but Sennacherib’s ad- 
mission that he did not take the city was held to be confirmation of 
2 Kings 19:35, ff., which describes a great destruction of the 
Assyrian army and a signal deliverance of Jerusalem. 

2. A second view, of which Prof. Meinhold,! of Bonn, may be 
taken as the chief exponent, starts from the fact that there seem 
to be two accounts in 2 Kings 18 and 19. In 18 : 13-16 there is a 
statement of how Hezekiah sent to Sennacherib, while Sennacherib 
was besieging Lachish, and admitted that he had done wrong and 
promised to bear whatever Sennacherib might choose to put upon 
him. Sennacherib thereupon imposed a heavy tribute upon him, 
which he paid. The whole transaction seems to be concluded, when 
at v. 17 the Tartan, or Rabsaris (Rabshakeh), appears upon the 
scene and taunts Hezekiah for his obstinacy and he submits again. 
Possibly this might be considered the details of the transaction that 
was described in mere outline in 18 : 13-16. When, however, it 
has all been described again, and the Rabshakeh has returned to 
Sennacherib at Lachish, Sennacherib again sends messengers 
(chapter 19 : 9), again demanding a surrender. These messengers 
are said to have been sent when Sennacherib heard that Tirhakah, 
King of Ethiopia, was marching against him. This narrative goes 
on to tell how Hezekiah, acting under the advice of Isaiah, delayed 
his surrender, and how the camp of the Assyrians was decimated by 
the angel of the Lord, and Jerusalem escaped. 

Meinhold and his followers hold that there are here two incon- 
sistent accounts. According to the first, Hezekiah surrendered; 
according to the second, he did not. According to the first, Heze- 
kiah paid tribute; according to the second, Sennacherib’s army was 
destroyed. The first of these accounts is confirmed by Sennach- 
erib’s inscription; the second is, so Meinhold holds, shown by it to 
be unhistorical: first, by the fact that Sennacherib gives no hint that 
his army was harmed, and, secondly, by the mention of Tirhakah, 
who did not come to the throne until 688 B. c., and could not, 
therefore, have been a factor in the war of 701 B. c. 

A third view was suggested by Winckler? and is held by Pragek,? 
Fullerton,* and Rogers. According to this view, Sennacherib 

1Meinhold, Die Jesaiaerzahlungen, Jes. 36-39, 1898. 
2 Winckler, Alitestamentliche Untersuchungen, 1892, pp. 27-50. 
3 PraSek, Sanheribs Feldztige gegen Juda, 1903. 


4In Bibliotheca Sacra, LXIII (1906), 577-634. 
5 Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament, 1912, 332-340. 


436 ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


made two expeditions against Jerusalem, and 2 Kings 18 : 13-—-19 :8 
is an account of the first of these (the expedition of 701), while 2 
Kings 19 : 9-36 is the account of the second,—an expedition which 
did not occur until after the accession of Tirhakah, eight or ten 
years later. The inscription of Sennacherib, already quoted, 
refers to the first of these expeditions only. We have no inscrip- 
tion of Sennacherib referring to the later disastrous campaign, but 
that is not surprising, for unless the account of his expedition against 
the queen of Arabia, already quoted above, belongs to this period, 
we have no inscriptions referring to the last eight years of his reign. 
It is thought by the scholars who believe that there were two expe- 
ditions, that Sennacherib would approach the queen of Arabia only 
from the west, so that that inscription is regarded as an incidental 
confirmation of this view. Of course, an Assyrian king would not 
record a disaster. 

The account in 2 Kings 19 : 9-36 receives confirmation from an 
interesting passage in Herodotus, the Greek “father of history.” 
He says (Book IT, 141): 


And after this the next king [of Egypt] was a priest of Hephaistos, called 
Sethés. He held the warrior class of the Egyptians in contempt as though he 
had no need of them. He did them dishonor and deprived them of the arable 
lands which had been granted them by previous kings, twelve acres to each 
soldier. And afterward Sennacherib, King of the Arabians and Assyrians, 
marched a great army into Egypt. Then the soldiers of Egypt would not help 
him; whereupon the priest went into the inner sanctuary to the image of the god 
and bewailed the things which he was in danger of suffering. As he wept he fell 
asleep, and there appeared to him in a vision the god standing over him to en- 
courage him, saying that, when he went forth to meet the Arabian army he 
would suffer no harm, for he himself would send him helpers. Trusting to this 
dream he collected those Egyptians who were willing to follow him and marched 
to Pelusium, where the entrance to his country was. None of the warriors fol- 
lowed him, but traders, artisans, and market men. There, as the two armies lay 
opposite to each other, there came in the night a multitude of field mice, which ate 
up all the quivers and bowstrings of the enemy, and the thongs of their shields. 
In consequence, on the next day they fled, and, being deprived of their arms, 
many of them fell. And there stands now in the temple of Hephaistos a stone 
statue of this king holding a mouse in his hand, bearing an inscription which 
says: ‘Let any who look on me reverence the gods.” 


George Adam Smith! pointed out several years ago that, when this 
passage is compared with 2 Kings 19 : 36, it points clearly to the 
conclusion that Sennacherib’s army was attacked by bubonic plague. 
In modern times this plague first attacks rats and mice, which in 


1 Historical Geography of the Holy Land, 158, ff. 


LIGHT ON THE BOOKS OF KINGS 437 


their suffering swarm the dwellings of men and spread the disease. 
The Hebrews regarded the attack of such a plague as a smiting by 
the angel of God. This is shown by 2 Sam. 24 : 16, 17; Acts 12 : 23; 
2 Kings 19 : 36. Such a pestilence would render the Assyrian army 
helpless, and would be regarded by the Hebrews as a divine inter- 
vention on their behalf. As it is supported by both the book of 
Kings and Herodotus, it probably affords us a clue to what really 
happened to Sennacherib’s army. 

We hold, then, that the last of the three views concerning the 
campaigns of Sennacherib to Palestine is probably correct. 

The Elteke mentioned in the inscription of Sennacherib is the 
city referred to in Josh. 19 : 44 and 21 : 23. The Merodachbaladan 
referred to is mentioned in Isa. 39 : 1, where it is said that he sent 
to congratulate Hezekiah upon his recovery from sickness. It is 
clear from what the Assyrian accounts tell us that his real motive in 
sending to Hezekiah was to induce him to rebel against Assyria. 

13. The Siloam Inscription. 

The following inscription was discovered in 1880 on the right wall 
of the tunnel which connects the Virgin’s Well (Ain Sitti Maryam) 
at Jerusalem with the Pool of Siloam (Birket SilwAn). 


The boring through [is completed]. And this is the story of the boring through: 
while yet [they plied] the drill, each toward his fellow, and while yet there were 
three cubits to be bored through, there was heard the voice of one calling unto 
another, for there was a crevice in the rock on the right hand. And on the day 
of the boring through the stone-cutters struck, each to meet his fellow, drill upon 
drill; and the waters flowed from the source to the pool for a thousand and two 
hundred cubits, and a hundred cubits was the height of the rock above the heads 
of the stone-cutters;! (see Fig. 297). 


This inscription, though not dated, is believed to come from the 
time of Hezekiah. Hezekiah is said in 2 Kings 20 : 20 to have built 
a conduit and to have brought the water into the city. This in- 
scription was found in a remarkable conduit which still runs under 
the hill at Jerusalem, cut through the solid rock. It is about 1,700 
feet long. It was cleared of silt by the Parker expedition of 1909- 
1911, and the tunnel is about 6 feet in height throughout its entire 
length. When it was cut the wall of Jerusalem crossed the Tyro- 
poeeon Valley just below it, so that, while the Virgin’s Spring (the 
Biblical Gihon) lay outside the walls, this aqueduct brought the 
water to a pool within the walls, so that the inhabitants of the city 


1 Translated from a facsimile in the Kautzsch-Gesenius, Hebraische Grammatik, 1902. 


438 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


could, in case of siege, fill their water-jars without exposing them- 
selves to the enemy. 
The inscription is now in the Imperial Ottoman Museum at 


Constantinople. 
14. Esarhaddon, 681-668 B. C. 


I overthrew the kings of the Hittite country and those beyond the sea; Baal, 
King of Tyre, Manassah, King of Judah, Kaushgabri, King of Edom, Musuri, 
King of Moab, Silbaal, King of Gaza, Mitinti, King of Askelon, Ikausu, King 
of Ekron, Milkiashapa, King of Gebal, Matanbaal, King of Arvad, Abibaal, 
King of Shamsimuruna, Puduel, King of Beth-Ammon, Ahi-milku, King of Ash- 
dod, 12 kings of the sea-coast; Ekishtura, King of Idalion, Pilagura, King of Kiti, 
Kisu, King of Sillua, Ituander, King of Paphos, Erisu, King of Sillu, Damasu, 
King of Kuri, Atmizu, King of Tamesu, Damusi, King of Kartihadasti, Unasa- 
gusu, King of Lidir, Bususu, King of Nurenu; 10 kings of Cyprus in the midst of 
the sea—altogether 22 kings of the Hittite land, of the sea-coast and the midst 
of the sea—I sent to them and great cedar beams, etc.......... [they sent]. 


Esarhaddon, the author of the inscription from which this ex- 
tract is taken, is mentioned in 2 Kings 19 : 37 and Isa. 37 : 38 as 
Sennacherib’s successor, a statement which the inscriptions abun- 
dantly confirm. The above quotation from his inscription shows 
that Manasseh, King of Judah, 2 Kings 20: 21 and chapter 21, was 
a vassal of Esarhaddon. Esarhaddon is also alluded to in Ezra 4 : 2. 

15.. Ashurbanipal of Assyria, 668-626 B. C. 


In my third campaign I marched against Baal, King of Tyre, who dwelt in the 
midst of the sea. Because he had not kept the word of my lordship nor heeded 
the utterance of my lips, I erected against him siege-works and cut off his exit 
both by land and sea; their lives I made narrow and straitened; I caused them to 
submit to my yoke. They brought the daughters that came forth from his 
loins and the daughters of his brothers into my presence to become concubines. 
Yahimilki, his son, who had never crossed the sea, they brought at the same 
time to do me service. His daughter and the daughters of his brothers with an 
abundant dowry I received from him. I granted him favor and returned to him 
the son that came forth from his loins.? 

Yakinlu, King of Arvad, who dwells in the midst of the sea, who had not sub- 
mitted to the kings, my fathers, I brought under my yoke. He brought his 
daughter to Nineveh with an abundant dowry and kissed my feet.......... 

On my return I captured Ushu, which is situated on the coast of the sea. 
The inhabitants of Ushu, who had not been obedient to their governors, who had 
not paid their tribute, I killed as the tribute of theirland. Among the rebellious 
peoples I set my staff. Their gods and their peoples I carried as booty to Assy- 
ria. The people of Accho who had not submitted I subdued. I hung their 
bodies on stakes around the city. The rest I took to Assyria; I preserved them 
and added them to the numerous army which Ashur had given unto me. 


¥ 1 Translated from Rawlinson’s Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, Vol. III, p. 16, col. v, 
ine 12, ff. 

3Ibid., Vol. V, 2, 49, f. 

3 [bid., 9, 115, f. 


: 
| 
. 
| 


LIGHT ON THE BOOKS OF KINGS 439 


These extracts from the inscriptions of Ashurbanipal show that 
_ during the reign of Manasseh he was active in reducing the rebel- 
lions of Phoenician cities, some of which, as Tyre and Accho, were 
at the doors of Palestine. No doubt Manasseh continued to pay 
him tribute and so was not molested. The name of Ashurbanipal 
is preserved in Ezra 4 : 10 in the corrupt form of Osnappar. 

16. Necho of Egypt, 609-593 B. C. 


Year 16, fourth month of the first season, day 16, under the majesty of Horus: 
Wise-hearted; king of Upper and Lower Egypt; Favorite of the two goddesses: 
Triumphant; Golden Horus: Beloved-of-the-Gods; Uhemibre; Son of Ra, of his 
body, his beloved: Necho, living forever, beloved of Apis, son of Osiris.* 


(An account of the interment of an Apis bull then follows.) 


The above is the beginning of an inscription of Pharaoh Necho, 
whose defeat of King Josiah, of Judah, is recorded in 2 Kings 23 : 
29, f£. He became over-lord of Judah for four years and placed 
Jehoiakim on the Judean throne (2 Kings 23:34). Necho was 
himself defeated at Carchemish on the Euphrates by Nebuchad- 
rezzar, of Babylon, in 604 B. c., and as he retreated to Egypt 
Nebuchadrezzar pursued him through Palestine. The book of 
Jeremiah speaks of this defeat and vividly describes the pursuit 
which followed. (Cf. Jer. 46 : 2, f.) 

17. Nebuchadrezzar II, 604-562 B. C. 

Many inscriptions of Nebuchadrezzar are known, but most of 
them relate to buildings. The following extracts are those which 
best illustrate the Bible. 


In exalted trust in him (Marduk) distant countries, remote mountains from 
the upper sea (Mediterranean) to the lower sea (Persian Gulf), steep paths, 
blockaded roads, where the step is impeded, [where] was no footing, difficult 
roads, desert paths, I traversed, and the disobedient I destroyed; I captured the 
enemies, established justice in the lands; the people I exalted; the bad and evil 
I separated from the people.? 


Reference to the Lebanon 


From the upper sea to the lower sea,.......... [which] Marduk, my lord, had 
entrusted to me, in [all] lands, the totality [of dwelling-places] I [exalted] the 
city of Babylon to the first place. I caused his name to be reverenced among the 
cities; the shrines of Nabu and Marduk, my lords, I made them recognize, con- 


7 lL ee At that time the Lebanon mountain, the mountain [of 
cedar], the proud forest of Marduk, the odor of whose cedars is good. iit. 2 
OF another: god ov... 5.665: no othervking hatly.. 2474-52. my god, Marduk, the 


1From Breasted’s Ancient Records, Egypt, IV, 498. 
2 Translated from Rawlinson’s Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, I, 33, col. ii, line 12, ff. 


440 ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Mente en sees As a foreign enemy had taken possession of (the mountain) and 


A Building Inscription 


Nebuchadrezzar, King of Babylon, the restorer of Esagila and Ezida, son of 
Nabopolassar am I. As a protection to Esagila, that no powerful enemy and 
destroyer might take Babylon, that the line of battle might not approach Imgur- 
Bel, the wall of Babylon, that which no former king had done [I did]; at the 
enclosure of Babylon I made an enclosure of a strong wall on the east side. I 
dug a moat, I reached the level of the water. I then saw that the wall which 
my father had prepared was too small in its construction. I built with bitumen 
and brick a mighty wall which, like a mountain, could not be moved and con- 
nected it with the wall of my father; I laid its foundations on the breast of the 
under-world; its top I raised up like a mountain. Along this wall to strengthen 
it I constructed a third and as the base of a protecting wall I laid a foundation of 
bricks and built it on the breast of the under-world and laid its foundation. ‘The 
fortifications of Esagila and Babylon I strengthened and established the name 
of my reign forever. 

O Marduk, lord of the gods, my divine creator, may my deeds find favor before 
thee; may they endure forever! Eternal life, satisfied with posterity, a secure 
throne, and a fone reign grant as thy gift. Thou art indeed my deliverer and 
my help, O Marduk, I by thy faithful word which does not change—may my 
weapons advance, be sharp and be stronger than the weapon of the foe!? 


Nebuchadrezzar was the king who destroyed Jerusalem and car- 
ried the more prominent of the people of Judah captive. (See 2 
Kings 24 and 25.) His inscriptions give no account of these events. 
In the first of the quotations made above he covers all his con- 
quests by one general reference. In the second quotation he gives a 
more detailed account of his conquest of the Lebanon, because that 
inscription was carved on the rocks at the side of one of the deep val- 
leys of the Lebanon. The third inscription, relating to the building 
of Babylon, has been strikingly confirmed by Koldewey’s excava- 
tion of Babylon, by which the massive walls and extensive temples 
were uncovered.’ It also gives us a background for Daniel 4 : 29, 

1 Translated from Pognon, Les inscriptions babyloniennes du Wadi Brissa, Pl. xiii, f., and 
Recueil de traveaux relatifs & la philologie et a V'archeologie egyptiennes et assyriennes, XXVIII, 57- 
See also Langdon, Neubabylonischen K énigsinschriften, 174, ff. 


2 Translated from the Zeitschrift fiir Assyriologie, I, 337, f. 
8 See Part I, Chapter II, p. 48, f. 


| 
| 
4 
| 
| 


LIGHT ON THE BOOKS OF KINGS 441 


where Nebuchadrezzar is said to have walked upon! the royal palace 
and said: “Is not this great Babylon which I have built?” 

18. Evil-Merodach, 562-560 B. C. 

Nebuchadrezzar was succeeded by his son, Amil-Marduk, whom 
the Bible (2 Kings 25 : 27) calls Evil-Merodach. The only inscrip- 
tion of his that has been found is the following, inscribed on an 
alabaster vase found at Susa, whither the Elamites had at some time 
carried it as booty:? 


Palace of Amil-Marduk, King of Babylon, son of Nebuchadrezzar, King of 
Babylon. 


This is the king who released Jehoiachin, King of Judah, from 
prison after his thirty-six years in confinement and treated him 
kindly. 

1 This is the reading of the margin in R. V., and correctly translates the original. He was 


not walking “‘in” the palace, but upon its flat roof, from which he could see the great city. 
* From de Morgan’s Délégation en Perse, Vol. XIV, p. 60. 


NOTE ON THE LAND OF THE QUEEN oF SHEBA.—This region, which lay in 
South Arabia, was explored during the nineteenth century by a number of 
travelers. Three of these, Thomas J. Arnaud in 1843, Joseph Halévy in 
1869, and Eduard Glaser who made four expeditions between 1882 and 1894, 
brought back from South Arabia many inscriptions, several of which were 
made by rulers of Saba, the Biblical Sheba, whose queen is said to have vis- 
ited Solomon (1 Kings 10: 1-13). As none of these relate to that queen, it 
has not seemed fitting to include one of them. The inscriptions, however, 
show that two important kingdoms existed there, Saba and Main. Main is 
thought by some to be related to the Biblical Midianites. The Greek ver- 
sion of Job makes Job’s friend, Zophar, king of Main. The kingdom of Saba 
lasted until 115 8. c. It established strong colonies in Africa. In 115 B.c. 
one colony overthrew the mother-country and established the kingdom of 
Saba and Raidhan, which lasted till about 300 a.p. After that Saba became 
apparently unimportant, but various Semitic kingdoms succeeded one another 
in Africa, including the present-day Abyssinian kingdom. The Abyssinian 
king claims descent from Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. 


CHAPTER XX 


THE END OF THE BABYLONIAN EXILE 


INSCRIPTIONS OF NABUNA’ID; THEIR BEARING ON BIBLICAL STATEMENTS REGARDING 
BELSHAZZAR. ACCOUNT OF THE CAPTURE OF BABYLON BEARING ON THE BOOK OF 
DANIEL. INSCRIPTION OF CyRUS BEARING ON THE CAPTURE OF BABYLON. CYRUS’ 
PERMISSION FOR THE RETURN TO JERUSALEM. 


1. Inscriptions of Nabuna’id. 

Several inscriptions of this king, who ruled 555-538 B. C., are 
known, but only a brief extract of one of them is given here, as the 
major part of the material has no bearing on the Bible. 


Nabuna’id, King of Babylon, the restorer of Esagila and Ezida, the worshiper 
of the great gods amI.......... O Sin, lord of the gods of heaven and earth, 
god of the gods... 550 as for me, Nabuna’id, King of Babylon, save me from 
sinning against thy great divinity. A life of many days grant as thy gift. As 
for Belshazzar, the firstborn son, proceeding from my loins, place in his heart fear 
of ay great divinity; let him not turn to sinning; let him be satisfied with fulness 
of life!# 


Belshazzar is here said to be the son of Nabuna’id, whereas in 
Dan. 5:11, 18 Nebuchadrezzar is called his father. Nabuna’id, 
as the Babylonian documents show, was not a descendant of 
Nebuchadrezzar, but a usurper of another family. Some scholars 
hold that this shows the book of Daniel to be in error, while others 
hold that “father” in Dan. 5 : 11, 18 is equivalent to ‘‘ancestor,”’ 
and think Belshazzar may have been descended from Nebuchad- 
rezzar on his mother’s side. 


The Nabuna’id-Cyrus Chronicle 


This chronicle is known only from a tablet which is somewhat 
broken. The following extract will show the nature of its contents: 


In the 9th year Nabuna’id was at Tema. The son of the king, the princes, 
and soldiers were in Akkad. The king did not come to Babylon in Nisan, 
Nebo did not go to Babylon. Bel did not go out. The festival sacrifice was 
omitted. They offered sacrifices in Esagila and Ezida on account of Babylon 
and Borsippa, that the land might prosper. On the 5th of the month, Nisan 


1 From Rawlinson’s Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, V, 68, No. 1. 


442 


THE END OF THE BABYLONIAN EXILE 443 


<2 exe oe 6s #4 


2. Bearing on Biblical Statements Regarding Belshazzar. 

Similar chronicles are given by the tablet for other years. It is 
stated each time what Nabuna’id was doing; where the king’s son 
(Belshazzar) was, and what Cyrus was doing. Cyrus, who over- 
threw the Median king in 553 B. c., was occupied for several years 
in subjugating other lands before he attacked Babylon. He over- 
threw Croesus, King of Lydia, in 546. It would seem that it was 
well known in Babylonia what he was doing each year. Those 
scholars who believe that Isaiah 40—55 is the work of a prophet 
who lived during the Babylonian Exile, claim that this chronicle 
explains how that prophet could refer in Isa. 44:28; 45:1 to 
Cyrus as a well-known figure. They see the exercise of the pro- 
phetic gift of the prophet in the faith which he had that Cyrus 
would release Israel from captivity. Those who believe that the 
whole of the book of Isaiah is the work of the son of Amoz, see in 
these verses pure prediction of the rise of Cyrus as well as of the 
release of the Jews. 

3. Account of the Capture of Babylon. 

From the chronicle just quoted we have the following state- 
ment for the 17th year of the reign of Nabuna’id: 


ates ss, Nebo to go forth from Borsippa..........the king entered the 
temple of Edurkalama. In the month.......... in the lower sea a revolt 
Briar. ....-Bel came out; the feast of Akiti (Sept.—Oct.), according to the cus- 
OMIA sek fale the gods of Marad, Zagaga, and the gods of Kish, Béltis, and the 


gods of Harsagkalama entered Babylon. Unto the end of Elul (Aug.-Sept.) 
the gods of Borsippa, Cutha, and Sippar did not enter. In the month Tammuz 
(June-July) Cyrus, when he made battle in Opis, on the banks of the river 
Zalzallat, with the soldiers of Akkad, conquered the inhabitants of Akkad. 
When they assembled the people were killed. On the 14th Sippar was taken 
without a battle. Nabuna’id fled. On the 16th Gobryas, governor of the land 
of Gutium, and the soldiers of Cyrus entered Babylon without a battle. Later 
Nabuna’id was captured because he remained in Babylon. To the end of the 
month the shield-bearers of the land of Gutium assembled at the gates of Esagila. 
No weapon of any kind was taken into Esagila or the temples; nor was the 
standard raised. On the third day of Marcheswan (Oct.-Nov.) Cyrus entered 
Babylon. The walls (?) were broken down before him. Cyrus proclaimed 


1From Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archeology, VII, 157, f. 


444 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


peace to all of Babylon. He appointed Gobryas his satrap, and also prefects in 
Babylon. From Kisleu (Nov.—Dec.) unto Adar (Feb.—March), the gods of 
Akkad, whom Nabuna’id had brought to Babylon, returned to their cities. In 
the month Marcheswan, on the night of the 11th, Gobryas unto.......... the 
son of the king was killed. From the 27th of Adar to the 3rd of Nisan there was 
lamentation in Akkad. All the people bowed their heads. On the 4th day 
Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, went to Eshapakalama.? 


4. Bearing of This Account on the Book of Daniel. 

This interesting text here becomes too broken for connected 
translation. It is clear that the document means to state that 
Nabuna’id was king of Babylon when it was captured, and not 
Belshazzar, as stated in Daniel 5 : 30. It states, also, that Cyrus 
captured Babylon and not Darius the Mede, as in Dan. 5:31. It 
is true that Gobryas took Babylon first, and occupied it about two 
weeks before Cyrus arrived. He was, however, Cyrus’s officer 
and was acting in his name. Critical scholars, who believe that 
Daniel was written 168-165 B. c., find in these statements a con- 
firmation of their views. They think its author lived so far from 
the events that he confused their exact order. Those who defend 
the traditional date of Daniel think that Gobryas is meant by 
Darius the Mede, and see in the exalted position which Belshazzar 
held, as crown prince and commander of the army, sufficient ground 
for the Biblical statement that he was king. By such interpreta- 
tions they harmonize this chronicle with the Bible. 

Dr. Theophilus G. Pinches has recently published? some extracts 
from two tablets from Erech which are in the possession of an 
Englishman, Mr. Harding Smith, which throw some additional 
light on these points. It was customary for Babylonians in con- 
firming a contract to swear by the name of the reigning king, and 
one of these tablets contains a contract, dated in the 12th year of 
Nabuna’id, in which a man bound himself by the oath of Nabuna’id, 
King of Babylon, and of Belshazzar, the king’s son. As Belshazzar 
is here associated with the king, he must have been but slightly 
lower in rank and power than the king himself. 

This is confirmed by a tablet at Yale, recently published by 
Prof. Clay.2 The text contains the interpretation of a dream for 
the King Nabuna’id and for his son Belshazzar. It is dated in the 
seventh year of the reign of Nabuna’id. 


1¥From Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archeology, VII, 162, f., and Clay, Light om the 
Old Testament from Babel, 374, f. 

2See Expository Times, Vol. XXVI, 297-299 (April, 1915). 

8 Babylonian Texts from the Yale Collection, No. 39. 


THE END OF THE BABYLONIAN EXILE 445 


The other tablet quoted by Pinches shows that in the fourth 
year of Cambyses (7. e., 524 B. c.), Gobryas was still governor of 
Babylon. If he is the man who in Daniel is called Darius the 
Mede, he exercised the powers of governor in Babylon for a consid- 
erable number of years. 

5. Inscription of Cyrus. 

The following is an inscription of Cyrus. The lines are much 
broken at the beginning, but it reads as follows:! 


Pee ee fib as ws Megat) himMn. ke. 8s .2.4 oe. as [the four] regions 
Hithe world. Sia... great coward was established as ruler over the land. . 
YF i GPa a similar one he set over them; like Esagila he made..........to Ur 
and the rest of the cities a rule not suitable for them.......... he planned daily 
and in enmity he caused the established sacrifice to cease. He appointed 
26 et Aa he established within the city. The worship of Marduk, king of the 
BOCs wader ccc. he wrought hostility against his city daily.......... his 
[people] all of them he destroyed through servitude, without rest. On account 
of their lamentation the lord of the gods was exceedingly angry and [left] their 
territory; the gods who dwelt among them left their dwellings. In anger because 


he brought [them] into Babylon, Marduk.......... to return to all the dwell- 
ings, their habitations, which were overthrown. The people of Sumer and Ak- 
kad, who were like corpses, he brought back and.......... granted them a 


return. Through all lands he made his way, he looked, he sought a righteous 
prince, a being whom he loved, whom he took by the hand. Cyrus, King of 
Anshan, he called by name and designated him to rule over all the lands. The 
land of Qutu, all the Scythian hordes, he made to submit to his feet. The 
black-headed people (7. e., the Babylonians), whom he caused his hand to cap- 
ture, in faithfulness and righteousness he sought. Marduk, the great lord, 
looked joyfully upon the return of his people, his kindly deeds and upright heart. 
To his city, Babylon, he commanded him to go; he caused him to take the road 
to Babylon, going as a friend and companion at his side. His numerous army, 
the number of which was, like the waters of a river, unknown, marched at his 
side girded with their weapons. He caused him to enter Babylon without war 
or battle. He preserved his city, Babylon, from tribulation; he filled his 
(Cyrus’s) hand with Nabuna’id, the king who did not fear him. All the people 
of Babylon, all of Sumer and Akkad, the princes and governors, prostrated them- 
selves under him and kissed his feet. They rejoiced in his sovereignty; their 
faces shone. The lord, who by his power makes the dead to live, who from de- 
struction and injustice had saved them, altogether they blessed him in joy; they 
revered his name. 

Iam Cyrus, king of the world, the great king, the mighty king, king of Baby- 
lon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four quarters of the world, son of 
Cambyses, the great king, king of Anshan, grandson of Cyrus, the great king, 
king of Anshan, great-grandson of Teispes, the great king, king of Anshan; an 
everlasting seed of royalty, whose government Bel and Nabu love, whose reign 
in the goodness of their hearts they desire. When I entered in peace into Baby- 
lon, with joy and rejoicing I took up my lordly dwelling in the royal palace, 
Marduk, the great lord, moved the understanding heart of the people of Babylon 
to me, while I daily sought his worship. My numerous troops dwelt peacefully 
in Babylon; in all Sumer and Akkad no terrorizer did I permit. In Babylon and 
all its cities in peace I looked about. The people of Babylon [I released] from 


1From Rawlinson’s Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, V, 35. 


446 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


an unsuitable yoke. Their dwellings—their decay I repaired; their ruins I 
cleared away. Marduk, the great lord, rejoiced at these deeds and graciously 
blessed me, Cyrus, the king who worships him, and Cambyses, my son, and all 
my troops, while we in peace joyfully praised before him his exalted divinity. 
All the kings who dwell in palaces, from all quarters of the world, from the 
upper sea to the lower sea, who live [in palaces], all the kings of the Westland 
who live in tents, brought me their heavy tribute in Babylon and kissed my feet. 
Protas n sais. ....to Ashur and Susa, Agade, Eshnunak, Zamban, Meturnu, Deri, 
to the border of Gutium, the cities [beyond] the Tigris, whose sites had been 
founded of old,—the gods who dwelt in them I returned to their places, and 
caused them to settle in their eternal shrines. All their people I assembled and 
returned them to their dwellings. And the gods of Sumer and Akkad, whom 
Nabuna’id, to the anger of the lord of the gods, had brought into Babylon, at the 
command of Marduk, the great lord, I caused in peace to dwell in their abodes, 
the dwellings in which their hearts delighted. May all the gods, whom I have 
returned to their cities, pray before Marduk and Nabu for the prolonging of my 
days, may they speak a kind word for me and say to Marduk, lord of the gods, 
“May Cyrus the king, who fears thee, and Cambyses, his son, their.......... 
caused all to dwell in peace”... 0.54). <a ws vinte sen teen 


6. Bearing on the Capture of Babylon and the Return of the Jews. 

This inscription confirms the statement of the chronicle already 
quoted that Cyrus conquered the city of Babylon without a blow. 
The most important feature of it for the student of the Bible is, 
however, its revelation of the reversal of the Assyrian policy of 
transportation. That policy had been inaugurated by Tiglath- 
pileser IV more than two hundred years before. In accordance 
with it the kingdom of Israel had first been stripped of its more 
prominent inhabitants who had been carried captive to distant 
lands, and then the kingdom of Judah. Cyrus determined to 
attach his subjects to himself by gratitude instead of terror, so he 
permitted, as he says here, those who had been transported to 
return to their several countries and rebuild their temples. It was 
in consequence of this general policy that the Jews were permitted 
to return from Babylonia and rebuild the temple at Jerusalem. 
This is referred to in Ezra, chapter 1. It is there implied that 
Cyrus made a special proclamation concerning the temple at 
Jerusalem. Some scholars infer from the above inscription of 
Cyrus, that the book of Ezra (chapter 1) has freely interpreted the 
general policy of Cyrus as a special permission granted to the Jews. 
It may be, however, as others have held, that a special edict was 
issued in favor of each individual nation in order that this general 
policy might be carried out without opposition. 

In any event, the inscription confirms the statement of Ezra that 
Cyrus permitted the Jews to return. 


CHAPTER XXI 


A JEWISH COLONY IN EGYPT DURING THE TIME OF 
NEHEMIAH 


PApyr!I WITNESS TO THE EXISTENCE OF A COLONY AT ELEPHANTINE. TRANSLATION 
OF A PETITION RELATING TO THEIR TEMPLE. REPLY OF PERSIAN GOVERNOR. His- 
TORICAL BEARINGS OF THESE DOCUMENTS. A LETTER RELATING TO THE PASSOVER. 
A LETTER SHOWING THAT THE JEWS WERE UNPOPULAR AT ELEPHANTINE. 


NUMEROUS papyri found since 1895 at Elephantine, an island at 
the First Cataract of the Nile, reveal the existence of a Jewish 
community there. The documents are dated from the year 494 
B. C. to the year 400 B.c. They show that this Jewish community 
had at Elephantine a temple to Jehovah, that they were soldiers, 
and that some of them were engaged in trade. One document 
declares that when Cambyses conquered Egypt (525 B. c.) he then 
found the temple of Jehovah in existence there, and that it had been 
built under native Egyptian kings. How came such a community 
of Jews to be established there? It is thought that they were a 
garrison placed there by Psammetik II, King of Egypt, 593-588 
B.C. This Psammetik endeavored to conquer Nubia,! and accord- 
ing to a confused statement in Josephus (Contra Apion, I, 26, 27) 
Rhampses (perhaps a corruption of Psammetik), employed some 
Jews in an expedition to that country.2, However, these Jews came 
to dwell at this point, and whensoever the settlement was made, the 
documents* are most interesting, and open to us a hitherto wholly 
unknown vista in the history of the Jews. 

1. Temple Papyrus from Elephantine. 

Unto our lord, Bagohi, governor of Judah, thy servants Jedoniah and his 
associates, the priests who are in Yeb, the fortress, health! May our Lord, the 
God of heaven, abundantly grant unto thee at all times, and for favors may he 


appoint thee before Darius, the king, and the princes of the palace more than at 
present a thousand times, and long life may he grant to thee, and joy and 


1 Herodotus, Book II, 161. 

2 Josephus professes to be quoting Manetho, and puts the incident in the time of Ramses. 
Perhaps Aristeas in his letter refers to this colony, when he speaks of Jewish soldiers. (See 
Kautzsch, Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen, II, 7.) 

§’ The documents have been published by Sayce and Cowley, Aramaic Papyri Discovered at 
Assuan, London, 1906, and Sachau, Aramdische Papyrus und Ostraka aus Elephantine, Leipzig, 
1911. Those translated here are Nos. 1, 4, 6, and 11 of Sachau’s publication. 

447 


448 ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


strength, at all times! Now thy servant, Jedoniah, and his associates thus speak: 
In the month Tammuz, year 14 of Darius, the king, when Arsames departed and 
went unto the king, the priests of the god Khnub, who were in Yeb, the fortress, 
made an agreement with Waidrang who was acting governor here; it was as 
follows: The temple of Yahu (Jehovah), the God, which is in Yeb, the fortress 
they would remove from there. Afterward this Waidrang wickedly sent a letter 
unto Nephayan, his son, who was commander of the army at Syene, the fortress, 
saying: “The temple which is in Yeb, the fortress they shall destroy.” After- 
ward Nephayan, mustering Egyptians with the other forces, came to the fortress 
Yeb with their quivers (?); they entered into this temple, they destroyed it to the 
ground, and the pillars of stone which were there they brake. Also it came to 
pass (that) five gates of stone, constructed of cut stone, which were in this 
temple, they destroyed, and their swinging doors and the bronze hinges of 
these doors. And the roof which was of cedar wood, all of it, together with 
the rest of the furnishings and the other things which were there, the whole 
they burned with fire. And the vessels of gold and silver and the things which 
were in this temple, the whole was taken, and they made it their own. 

Now from the days of the kings of Egypt, our fathers built this temple in Yeb, 
the fortress, and when Cambyses came to Egypt, this temple was found built, 
and the temples of the gods of Egypt were overthrown, but not a thing in this 
temple was harmed. And after they (7. e., Waidrang and the priests of Khnub) 
had done this, we and our wives and sons were clothed in sackcloth and were 
fasting and praying to Yahu, God of heaven, that he would show us this Waid- 
rang, the cur, with the anklets torn from his feet, that all the goods which he 
possesses might perish, and all the men who desired the pollution of this tem- 
ple—all might be killed, and we might see (our desire) upon them. Also for- 
merly, at the time this shameful deed was done to us we sent a letter to our 
lord, and unto Jehohanan, the high priest, and his associates, the priests who are 
in Jerusalem, and unto Ostan, the brother of Anani and the elders of Judah, but 
a letter they have not sent unto us. Also from the month Tammuz of the 14th 
year of Darius the king even unto this day we have worn sackcloth and fasted, 
our wives have been made like widows, we have not anointed ourselves with oil, 
wine we have not drunk; also from then unto the 17th year of Darius the king a 
meal-offering and incense and a burnt-offering they have not offered in this 
temple. Now thy servants Jedoniah and his associates and the Jews, all who are 
citizens of Yeb, thus speak: If unto our lord it seems good to think on this temple 
to rebuild it, because they will not permit us to rebuild it, look upon those who 
share thy favor and kindnesses who are here in Egypt—let a letter be sent unto 
them concerning the temple of Yahu God, to build it in Yeb, the fortress, in the 
way it was built formerly, and meal-offerings and incense and burnt-offerings let 
them offer upon the altar of Yahu God in thy name, and we will pray for thee at 
all times, we and our wives and our sons and the Jews, all who are here. If thus 
they do until this temple is built, then merit (righteousness) shall be thine before 
Yahu, God of heaven, more than (that of) the man who offers to him burnt- 
offerings and sacrifices of the value of a thousand pieces of silver. And concern- 
ing gold for this we have sent information. Also the whole is told in a letter we 
sent in our name to Dalajah and Shelemjah, sons of Sanballat, governor of 
eee! Also concerning this which is done to us, all of it Arsames does not 

now. 


On the 20th of Marcheswan, year 17 of Darius the king. 
To this letter Bagohi (Bagoas) sent the following reply: 


Memorandum of Bagohi and Dalajah. They spoke to me a memorandum for 
them: It shall be thine to say among the Egyptians before Arsames concerning 


A JEWISH COLONY IN EGYPT 449 


the place of sacrifice of the god...... of heaven, which was built in Yeb the 
fortress formerly before Cambyses, which this wicked Waidrang destroyed in 
the year fourteen of Darius the king, to build it in its place like as it was before, 
and meal-offerings and incense let them offer upon this altar in the manner it 
formerly was done. 


The first of these documents is dated in the 17th year of Darius 
II, 7. ¢., the year 407 B.c. It states that the temple at Elephantine 
(Yeb) had been destroyed by Waidrang and had lain in ruins for 
three years. The community which worshiped in the temple had 
previously written to Jehohanan, high priest at Jerusalem, probably 
to ask that he intercede with the Persian governor Bagohi (Bagoses), 
but had written in vain. They now write to Bagohi himself, and 
also to the two sons of Sanballat, governor of Samaria (cf. Neh. 
2:10, 19, etc.), with the result that the request is granted, and 
authority is given to rebuild the temple. 

The fact that there was a temple at Elephantine at all is new and 
startling. Its significance is differently interpreted by different 
scholars. More conservative scholars claim that it is opposed to the 
date which the critical school assign to the date of Deuteronomy, 
viz.: 621 B. c., because, if the law against more altars than one had 
been introduced then, Jews would not have so soon violated it by 
building this shrine. Critics, on the other hand, hold that it fits 
well with their views, since they believe that Deuteronomy was 
accepted by Jews as a whole only gradually, and after considerable 
struggle. 

One thing is clear: at the time the temple at Elephantine was 
overthrown, the Jews at Jerusalem looked upon it with disfavor. 
They took no steps to lay the matter before the Persian governor. 
It was not till the aggrieved Egyptian Jews wrote to the heretical 
Samaritans, Dalajah and Shelemjah, sons of Sanballat, who would 
naturally be glad to encourage another rival to the temple at Jeru- 
salem, that the matter was pushed and permission given to rebuild 
the temple. i 

This appeal to Sanballat’s family throws interesting light on the 
progress of the schism between the Jews and the Samaritans.’ 
(Compare Nehemiah 4 : 1, ff; 6 : 1, ff.; and 13 : 28.) 

The existence of this temple has an interesting bearing upon the 
date of Isa. 19. Some scholars have held that that prophecy, which 

1 Perhaps this disfavor arose in part from the fact that, as a papyrus not translated here shows, 


two other deities were worshiped along with Jehovah. 
2 It is possible that the Elephantine colony were taken from northern Israel. 


450 ARCHASOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


refers to a temple of Jehovah in the land of Egypt, is late and must 
refer to the temple built by Onias III, about 170 B.c. (Cf. Jose- 
phus, Antiquities, xiii, 3:1, 6.) It is now possible to suppose that 
the reference may well have been to this hitherto unsuspected temple 
at Elephantine. 

2. Hananiah’s Passover Letter. 


To my brethren, Jedoniah and his associates, the Jewish garrison, your brother 
Hananiah. The peace of my brethren may God...... And now this year, the 
year 5 of Darius the king, there was sent from the king unto Arsames.......... 
Now ye thus shall count fourteen.......... and from the 15th day unto the 
21st day [of Nisan].......... be ye clean and guard yourselves. Work ye shall 
NOL Goh ye shall not drink, and all which is leavened ye shall n[ot eat] 
Srrcaase eeeees from the going down of the sun unto the 21st day of Nisan.......... 
take into your rooms and seal between the days of.......... 


This letter is from some Hananiah who seems to have stood high 
in authority among Jewish communities. Several Hananiahs are 
mentioned in the post-exilic literature. One of them was a military 
commander in Jerusalem in the time of Nehemiah (Neh. 7 : 2), but 
as that was at least twenty-five years before the date of our letter, 
it would be precarious to assert that that Hananiah was the writer 
of this letter, though it is possible that he was. 

From the letter it is clear that the writer is informing the Jewish 
garrison at Elephantine concerning the details of the provisions for 
the observance of the Jewish Passover, as they are laid down in 
Exod. 12 and Lev. 23. It seems strange that these Jews at Ele- 
phantine who were faithful enough to Jehovah to have a temple in 
his honor, should have needed to be informed of such details, if they 
had copies of the Pentateuch. Adherents of the modern school of 
criticism see in this fact a confirmation of their view, that the 
Levitical law had been introduced into the Jewish community at 
Jerusalem only in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, for, they urge, 
this letter shows that it was unknown to the garrison at Elephan- 
tine until the reign of Darius II. To this, conservative scholars 
reply that it was customary among the Jews to make yearly procla- 
mation of the approach of the festival, and that this may be simply 
such a proclamation. They also urge that ignorance of the law on 
the part of some Jews is no proof that it did not exist. 

3. Letter Showing that the Jews of Egypt were Unpopular. 


To my lords, Jedoniah, Uriah, and the priests of the God, Jehovah, Mattan, 
son of Joshibiah and Neriah son of...... thy servant Mauziyah; the peace of 


A JEWISH COLONY IN EGYPT 451 


Sl, a se and be favored before the God of heaven. And now, when 
Waidrang, the chief of the garrison, came to Abydos, he imprisoned me on ac- 
count of a certain precious stone which they found stolen in the hands of the 
traders. At last Seha and Hor, who were known to Anani, exerted themselves 
with Waidrang and Hornufi, under the protection of the God of heaven, until 
they secured my release. Now behold they are coming thither to you. Do you 
attend to them whatever they may desire. And whatever thing Seha and Hor 
may desire of you, stand ye before them so that no cause of blame may they find 
in you. With you is the chastisement which without cause has rested upon us, 
from the time Hananiah was in Egypt untilnow. And whatever you do for Hor 
you do for yourselves. Hor is known to Anani. Do you sell cheaply from our 
houses any goods that are at hand; whether we lose or do not lose, is one to you. 
This is why I am sending to you: he said to me: ‘‘Send a letter before us.” Even 
if we should lose, credit will be established because of him in the house of Anani. 
What you do for him will not be hidden from Anani. To my lords, Jedoniah, 
Uriah, and the priests and the Jews. 


This is a letter sent by a member of the Jewish colony of Ele- 
phantine to his Jewish brethren there, highly recommending to 
them twomen. He was especially anxious to make a good impres- 
sion upon these because they were acquaintances of a certain Anani. 
his Anani apparently was a man of influence at the Persian court. 
His name may be the same as Hanani, Nehemiah’s brother (Neh. 
7:2). It has been pointed out that the existence of two men of 
the same name who could have influence at the Persian court would 
be improbable. This letter shows that since Hananiah came to 
Egypt, the Jews have been in affliction, and the writer of this letter 
is anxious to make a good impression upon the friends of Anani, so 
that this affliction may be removed. 

Scholars of the critical school see in this letter a confirmation of 
their view that the Levitical law had but just been introduced into 
the Egyptian community. The reference to the ‘‘chastisement” or 
“affliction” which had rested on the community is thought by them 
to be, probably, the friction between Jews and Egyptians caused by 
the less friendly relations toward foreigners, which the Levitical 
law imposed on its devotees. It is, of course, possible that the 
“chastisement”’ may have been due to something quite different. 
It should be said, too, that the papyrus is torn somewhat just where 
the word rendered chastisement occurs, so that the word itself is 
not certain. 


CHAPTER XXII 


A BABYLONIAN JOB 


TRANSLATION OF A POEM RELATING TO THE AFFLICTIONS OF A GOOD MAN. COMPARISON 
WITH THE Book oF Jos. A FRAGMENT OF ANOTHER SIMILAR POEM. 


1. Babylonian Poem Relating to Affliction. 

The following Babylonian poem treats of a mysterious affliction 
which overtook a righteous man of Babylonia, and has been com- 
pared with the book of Job.! 


1. I advanced in life, I attained to the allotted span; 
Wherever I turned there was evil, evil— 
Oppression is increased, uprightness I see not. 
I cried unto god, but he showed not his face. 
5. I prayed to my goddess, but she raised not her head. 

The seer by his oracle did not discern the future; 
Nor did the enchanter with a libation illuminate my case; 
I consulted the necromancer, but he opened not my understanding. 
The conjurer with his charms did not remove my ban. 

10. How deeds are reversed in the world! 
I look behind, oppression encloses me 
Like one who the sacrifice to god did not bring, 
And at meal-time did not invoke the goddess, 
Did not bow down his face, his offering was not seen; 

15. (Like one) in whose mouth prayers and supplications were locked, 
(For whom) god’s day had ceased, a feast day become rare, 
(One who) has thrown down his fire-pan, gone away from their images, 
God’s fear and veneration has not taught his people, 
Who invoked not his god, when he ate god’s food; 

20. (Who) abandoned his goddess, and brought not what is prescribed, 
(Who) oppresses the weak, forgets his god, 
Who takes in vain the mighty name of his god; he says, I am like him. 
But I myself thought of prayers and supplications; 
Prayer was my wisdom, sacrifice, my dignity; 

25. The day of honoring the gods was the joy of my heart, 
The day of following the goddess was my acquisition of wealth; 
The prayer of the king,—that was my delight, 
And his music,—for my pleasure was its sound. 
I gave directions to my land to revere the names of god, 

30. To honor the name of the goddess I taught my people. 
Reverence for the king I greatly exalted, 
And respect for the palace I taught the people; 
For I knew that with god these things are in favor. 
What is innocent of itself, to god is,evil! 

1 Translated from the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology, X, 478, f., and Rawlin- 


son’s Cuneiform Inscriptions, IV, 60*. The text has recently been translated by C. J. Ball in 
his Book of Job, Oxford, 1922, pp. 12-30, and by S. Langdon in his Babylonian Wisdom, 1923. 


452 


A BABYLONIAN JOB 453 


35. What in one’s heart is contemptible, to one’s god is good! 
Who can understand the thoughts of the gods in heaven? 
The counsel of god is full of destruction; who can understand? 
Where may human beings learn the ways of god? 
He who lives at evening is dead in the morning; 
40. Quickly he is troubled; all at once he is oppressed; 
At one moment he sings and plays; 
In the twinkling of an eye he howls like a funeral-mourner. 
Like sunshine and cloud! their thoughts change; 
They are hungry and like a corpse; 
45. They are filled and rival their god! 
In prosperity they speak of climbing to Heaven; 
Trouble overtakes them and they speak of going down to Sheol. 


(At this point the tablet is broken. We do not know how many 
lines are wanting before the narrative is resumed on the back of the 
tablet.) 


Reverse 


Into my prison my house is turned. 
Into the bonds of my flesh are my hands thrown; 
Into the fetters of myself my feet have stumbled. 

5. With a whip he has beaten me; there is no protection; 
With a staff he has transfixed me; the stench was terrible! 
All day long the pursuer pursues me, 

In the night watches he lets me breathe not a moment; 
Through torture my joints are torn asunder; 
10. My limbs are destroyed, loathing covers me; 
On my couch I welter like an ox, 
I am covered, like a sheep, with my excrement. 
My sickness baffled the conjurers, 
And the seer left dark my omens. 
15. The diviner has not improved the condition of my sickness; 
The duration of my illness the seer could not state; 
The god helped me not, my hand he took not; 
The goddess pitied me not, she came not to my side; 
The coffin yawned; they [the heirs] took my possessions; 
20. While I was not yet dead, the death wail was ready. 
My whole land cried out: “How is he destroyed!” 
My enemy heard; his face gladdened; 
They brought as good news the glad tidings, his heart rejoiced. 
But I knew the time of all my family, 
25. When among the protecting spirits their divinity is exalted. 


The above is from a tablet called the ‘‘Second”’ of the series 
Ludlul bél nimeqi, i. e., “I will serve the lord of wisdom.” The 
“Third” tablet of the series has been published by R. Campbell 
Thompson in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology, 


1 Literally, “like opening and shutting.” 


454 


ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


XXXII, p. 18, f. It is considerably broken, but the parts which are 
legible are as-follows: 


10. 


15. 


20. 


25. 


30. 


10. 


1D. 


eeeeeeceeeer ese eee eee eee esr ese eee eee ee eeses 


Let thy hand grasp the javelin. = 
Tabu-utul-Bél, who lives at Nippur, 


. Has sent me to consult thee, 
Has laid his: i... .4 se upon me. 
In Heer has cast, he has found. [He says]: 


“(I lay down] and a dream I beheld; 

This is the dream which I saw by night:— 

[He who made woman] and created man, 

Marduk, has ordained (?) that he be encompassed with sickness (?).” 
ANG Rieerescesy in whatevery 4) ee 

He said: ‘‘How long will he be in such great affliction and distress? 
What is it that he saw in his vision of the night?” 

“In the dream Ur-Bau ap|peared], 

A mighty hero wearing his crown, 

A conjurer, too, clad in strength, 

Marduk indeed sent me; 

Unto Shubshi-meshri-Nergal he brought abu[ndance]; 

In his pure hands he brought abu(ndance]. 

By my guardian-spirit (?) he st[opped] (?),”’ 


[By] the seer he sent a message: 
“‘A favorable omen I show to my people.” 
.....he quickly finished; the... ...was broken 
GER ls § of my lord, his heart [was satisfied]; 
statherin his spirit was appeased 
ane atalino my lamentation... ..... 433.40 eee 
METER ERY Sey at a) POOd sy). 8 Fe eee 

Reverse 


eooceoereereoeeeeoeee esr ee eo eee sees eeeer sees esesee 


eecerereeeeeere eee ees cee eee eee esr eer eee oe eneeee 


To the breast of the earth it bore [a blast], 

Into the depth of his ocean the disembodied spirit vanished (?); 

Unnumbered spirits he sent back to the under-world. 

The...0.: of the hag-demons he sent straight to the mountain. 

The sea-flood he spread with ice; 

The roots of the disease he tore out like a plant. 

The horrible slumber that settled on my rest 

Like smoke filled the sky.......... 

With the woe he had brought, unrepulsed and bitter, he filled the earth like 
a storm. 

The unrelieved headache which had overwhelmed the heavens 

He took away and sent down on me the evening dew. 

My eyelids, which he had veiled with the veil of night. 

He blew upon with a rushing wind and made clear their sight. 

My ears, which were stopped, were deaf as a deaf man’s— 


A BABYLONIAN JOB 455 


20. He removed their deafness and restored their hearing. 
My nose, whose nostril had been stopped from my mother’s womb— 
He eased its deformity so that I could breathe. 
My lips, which were closed—he had taken their strength— 
He removed their trembling and loosed their bond. 
25. My mouth, which was closed so that I could not be understood— 
He cleansed it like a dish, he healed its disease. 
My eyes, which had been attacked so that they rolled together— 
He loosed their bond and their balls were set right. 
The tongue, which had stiffened so that it could not be raised— 
30. [He relieved] its thickness, so its words could be understood. 
The gullet which was compressed, stopped as with a plug— 
He healed its contraction, it worked like a flute. 
My spittle which was stopped so that it was not secreted— 
He removed its fetter, he opened its lock. 


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2. Comparison with the Book of Job. 

A commentary on this text, which has been preserved on a 
tablet, informs us that Tabu-utul-Bél was an official of Nippur in 
Babylonia.! This story has some striking similarities to the book 
of Job. It presents also some striking dissimilarities. 

Tabu-utul-Bél, like Job, had been a just man. He had been also 
a religious man. (See lines 23, ff., p. 392 .) The virtues which he 
claims are similar to those of Job (see Job 29 and 31); there is, 
however, this difference: Job’s virtues are social; those of Tabu- 
utul-Bél consist of acts of worship and loyalty. Tabu-utul-Bél is 
smitten, like Job, with a sore disease. To him, as to Job, the 
providence is inexplicable. He, like Job, charges his god with in- 
scrutable injustice. The chasm which often yawns between ex- 
perience and moral deserts was as keenly felt by the Babylonian as 
by the Hebrew. 

Here the parallelism with the book of Job ends. The two works 
belong to widely different religious worlds. Job gains relief by 
a vision of God—an experience which made him able to believe 
that, though he could not understand the reason for the pain of life 
or its contradictions and tragedy, God could, and Job now knew 
God. (See Job 42:46.) Tabu-utul-Bél, on the other hand, is 
said to have gained his relief through a magician. We are appar- 
ently told by the fragmentary text that at last he found a conjurer 
who brought a messenger from the god Marduk, who drove away 

1 Perhaps one of the antediluvian Babylonian kings. (See Part II, Chapter IV.) The Sume- 
rian form of his name was Laluralim and in Rawlinson’s Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western .A sia, 


Vol. V, p. 44, 17b, is glossed as Zugagib or “scorpion.” Zugagib is one-of the early kings of Baby- 
lonia, who is said to have ruled 840 years. 


456 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


the evil spirits which caused the disease, and so Tabu-utul-Bél was 
relieved. This difference sets vividly before us the greater religious 
value and inspiration of the book of Job. It treats the same prob- 
lem that the Babylonian poet took for his theme, but between the 
outlook of the poet who composed Job and that of the Babylonian 
poet there is all the difference between a real experience of God and 
faith in the black art. 

3. Another Similar Lament. 

Another fragment of a lament of a somewhat similar character, 
written in the Sumerian language, comes to us on a tablet from Nip- 
pur, the very city with which Tabu-utul-Bél is said to have been 
connected. It reads as follows:! 


Column I 
desu Lb ene Reena ee 
as Sai Wele vas Dale eel gta er 
Span Roalaaeays Cokie: Sn gana eee he carried away, 
Bish. eegs 1G a ee he destroyed, 
Ds) se Cain ee ee Spoke t0.2) geen 
Oo sea are ee was destroyed, 
Tekind eae completely from on high was destroyed. 


8. I, even I, am a man of destruction. 
9. With might from below he destroyed, 
10. I, even I, am a man of destruction. 
11. Nippur (?)—its temple verily is destroyed, 
12. My city verily is destroyed. 
13. O Enlil, from the height descend, 
14. May Ububul destroy them! 


Column II 


2:6 8 8:8 6 OS FOO PB) 0.0 6&0 6 6 6.6 8.0 3.5 8 6,0 6 


Rew ibs eee eee: my food (?) is not, 
4. The ground grain is removed, with the hand he seized it; 
5. My eyes fail. 
6. The shrine of the mother which the silver-smith cast, 
7. To earth he has ground, 
8. Its contents on the earth verily he flung— 
9. Iam a man of destruction!— 
10. Its contents on the earth verily he destroyed; 
11. I am a man of destruction! 
12. The man from above is wise; 
13. On earth he dwells. 
14, The man who went before, 
15. Hides in the rear. 
16. Namtar my maiden (he snatched away); 
17. Who shall bring the maiden back? 


1 Translated from S. Langdon’s Historical and Religious Texts from the Temple Library of Ni ppur, 
Munich, 1914, No. 16. 


A BABYLONIAN JOB 457 


Column IIT 


. Namtar verily is smitten, yea verily, 

- Who shall bring back strength? 

. The smiter has smitten, 

Who shall strike him down? 

The hero bearing the dagger 

He has cast down, 

- Who shall drag him off? 

. At the gate of my palace no protector stands, 
. Aman of desolation am I! 

10. The land is completely overthrown, I have no defender, 
11. A man of desolation am I! 

12. The flood fills not the marsh land; 

13. My eye thereon I lift not. 

14. To man’s plantations water reaches not, 

15. My hand stretches not out to it. 

16. To the marsh land which the flood filled 

17. Truly the foot walks upon it! 


O CONT OV Ui Gb et 


From this point on the tablet is too broken for connected trans- 
lation. Dr. Langdon calls this the lament of a Sumerian Job, but 
his woes, in so far as this fragment recounts them, are due to the 
conquest of his land by an enemy, and to famine due to a failure of 
the rivers to overflow. The parallelism to Tabu-utul-Bél and to 
Job might be closer, if we had the whole tablet. As this tablet is 
in the script of the first dynasty of Babylon, it is evident that this 
kind of lamentation was as early as 2000 B. c. 


CHAPTER XXIII 


PSALMS FROM BABYLONIA AND EGYPT 


CHARACTER OF THEIR PSALMS. BABYLONIAN PRAYERS TO THE GODDESS ISHTAR. 
COMPARISON WITH THE PSALTER. A BABYLONIAN HyMN TO THE Moon-Gop. A 
BABYLONIAN Hymn To BEL. AN EGyPTIAN HyMN TO THE SUN-Gop. Is THE HYMN 
MOonorTHEISTIC? AN EGYPTIAN HYMN IN PRAISE OF ATON. COMPARISON WITH THE 
PSALTER. 


Boru from Babylonia and from Egypt a large number of hymns 
and prayers have been recovered. Some of these are beautiful on 
account of their form of expression, the poetical nature of their 
thoughts, and the sense of sin which they reveal. Most of them are 
clearly polytheistic, and it is rare that they rise in the expression of 
religious emotion to the simple sublimity of the Old Testament 
Psalms. Such likenesses to the Psalms as they possess only serve 
to set off in greater relief the rich religious heritage which we have 
in our Psalter. 

A few examples only of the many known hymns are here given. 

1. A Babylonian Prayer to the Goddess Ishtar.! 


0 66 Oe Oe ih 8 eee. we os Wm Fee & (ace © S58. @) &) Be) /6 8 elim 6 es re Te) 


Mother of the gods, fulfiller of the commands of Bel, 
Thou bringer-forth of verdure, thou lady of mankind,— 
5. Begetress of all, who makest all offspring thrive, 
Mother Ishtar, whose might no god approaches, 
Majestic lady, whose commands are powerful, 
A request I will proffer, which—may it bring good to me! 
O a on my childhood I have been exceedingly hemmed in by 
trouble! 
10. Food I did not eat, I was bathed in tears! 
Water I did not quaff, tears were my drink! 
My heart is not glad, my soul is not cheerful; 
+ ie Wie Bie alg ta geza Siete eee arene I do not walk like a man. 


eocereeoeeeoecre eee ee eee eee ese eee sere eeeee eee 


Reverse 


Ss 5g Sea packet Ree painfully I wail! 

My sighs are many, my sickness is great! 

O my lady, teach me what to do, appoint me a resting-place! 
My sin forgive, lift up my countenance! 


1 Translated from Haupt’s Akkadische und sumerische Keilschrifttexte, 116, ff., with comparison 
of Zimmern’s Babylonische Busspsalmen, 33, f. 


458 


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PSALMS FROM BABYLONIA AND EGYPT § 459 


. My god, who is lord of prayer,—may he present my prayer to thee! 


My goddess, who is mistress of supplication —may she present my 
prayer to thee! 

God of the deluge, lord of Harsaga,—may he present my prayer to thee,— 

The god of pity, the lord of the fields—may he present my prayer to thee! 

God of heaven and earth, the lord of Eridu,—may he present my prayer 
to thee! 

The mother of the great water, the dwelling of Damkina,—may she 
present my prayer to thee! 

Marduk, lord of Babylon,—may he present my prayer to thee! 

His spouse, the exalted offspring (?) of heaven and earth,—may she pre- 
sent my prayer to thee! 

The exalted servant, the god who announces the good name,—may he 
present my prayer to thee! 

The bride, the firstborn of Ninib,—may she present my prayer to thee! 

The lady who checks hostile speech,—may she present my prayer to thee! 

The great, exalted one, my lady Nana,—may she present my prayer to 
thee! 


A Babylonian Prayer to Ishtar.! 


Oil he Se eee He raises to thee a wail; 

RE ae He raises to thee a wail; 

[On account of his face which] for tears is not raised, he raises to thee a 
wail; 

On account of his feet on which fetters are laid, he raises to thee a wail; 


. On account of his hand, which is powerless through oppression, he raises 


to thee a wail; 

On pees of his breast, which wheezes like a bellows, he raises to thee a 
wail; 

O lady, in sadness of heart I raise to thee my piteous cry, ‘How long?” 

O lady, to thy servant—speak pardon to him, let thy heart be appeased! 

To thy servant who suffers pain—favor grant him! 

Turn thy gaze upon him, receive his entreaty! 

To thy servant with whom thou art angry—be favorable unto him! 

O lady, my hands are bound, I turn to thee! 

For the sake of the exalted warrior, Shamash, thy beloved husband, take 
away my bonds! 

Through a long life let me walk before thee! 

My god brings before thee a lamentation; let thy heart be appeased! 

My goddess utters to thee a prayer, let thy anger be quieted! 

The exalted warrior, Anu, thy beloved spouse,—may he present my prayer 
to thee! 

[Shamash], god of justice,—may he present my prayer to thee! 

Pe eta the exalted servant,—may he present my prayer to thee! 

ee a the mighty one of Ebarbar,—may he present my tears to thee! 

(“Thine eye turn truly] to me,” may he say to thee! 

(‘Thy face turn truly to] me,” may he say to thee! 

(“Let thy heart be at rest”], may he say to thee! 

(‘Let thy anger be pacified”, may he say to thee! 

[Thy heart like the heart of a mother who has brought forth], may it 
rejoice! 

[Like a father who has begotten a child], may it be glad! 


1 Translated from Haupt’s Akkadische und Sumerische Keilschrifttexte, p. 122, f. 


460 ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


3. Comparison of These Prayers with the Psalter. 

The writers of these lamentations, like the Hebrew Psalmist 
(see Psa. 17 : 1; 18 : 6), cried unto a deity for help. They were both 
in great distress, and naturally inferred that their deity was angry, 
as do Psalms 85 :5;90:7. There is, however, no great conscious- 
ness of sin in these Babylonian complaints. ‘They simply express 
distress. Unlike the Biblical Psalms these are polytheistic and their 
authors call upon other deities to intercede for them with the god- 
dess, to whom the prayer is addressed and whom, for the time being, 
they regard as supreme. ‘The author of this last penitential psalm 
asks “How long?” as does Psa. 6:3; 74:10; 90:13. The idea 
seems to be that the suffering of the penitent will either atone for 
sin or touch the heart of the deity so that the suffering shall be 
abated. 

4. A Babylonian Hymn to Sin, the Moon-god.! 


O brilliant barque of the heavens, ruler in ay own right, 
Father Nannar, lord of Ur, 
Father Nannar, lord of Ekishshirgal, 
Father Nannar, lord of the brilliant rising, 
5. O lord, Nannar, firstborn son of Bel, 
Thou standest, thou standest 
Before thy father Bel. Thou art ruler, 
Father Nannar; thou art ruler, thou art guide. 
O barque, when standing in the midst of heaven, thou art ruler. - 
10. Father Nannar, thou thyself ridest to the brilliant temple. 
Father Nannar, when, like a ship, thou goest in the midst of the deep, 
Thou goest, thou goest, thou goest, 
Thou goest, thou shinest anew, thou goest, 
Thou shinest anew, thou livest again, thou goest. 
15. Father Nannar, the herd thou restorest. 
When thy father looketh on thee with j joy, he commandeth thy waxing, 
Then with the glory of a king brilliantly thou risest. 
Bel a scepter for distant days for thy hands has completed. 
In Ur as the brilliant barque thou ridest, 
20. As the lord, Nudimmud, thou art established; 
In Ur as the brilliant boat thou ridest. 


eoeoeeereeeeeerereereereeeeeeeseereseeoseeeeesneeen 


eoee eee eee e ee eee eee e ese eer esesee reser eee eeee 


The river of Bel (?) [Nannar] fills with water. 
The brilliant (?) river [Nannar] fills with water. 
The river Tigris [Nannar] fills with water. 
5. The brilliance of the Euphrates [Nannar] fills with water. 
The canal with its gate Lukhe, [Nannar] fills with water. 
The great marsh and the little marsh Nannar fills with water. 


1 Translated from Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets, &c., in the British Museum, Part 
XV, pp. 16, 17. 


PSALMS FROM BABYLONIA AND EGYPT 461 


The preceding hymn is made up of a description of the movements 
and changes of the moon, together with the expression of a super- 
stition, which is still widely prevalent, that the moon’s changes 
control the rainfall. It is a fair example of a Babylonian nature- 
psalm. It lacks the inspired and inspiring power of such Hebrew 
nature-psalms as Psalms 8, 19, 146, 147, and 148. 

5. A Babylonian Hymn to Bel.! 


Retard WISGOM kik de ae ed ruler in thy own right, 
O Bel, lord of wisdom.......... ruler in thy own right, 
O father Bel, lord of the lands, 
O father Bel, lord of truthful speech, 
5. O father Bel, shepherd of the black-headed ones,? 
O father Bel, who thyself openest the eyes, 
O father Bel, the warrior, prince among soldiers, 
O father Bel, supreme power of the land, 
Bull of the corral, warrior who leadest captive all the land. 
10. O Bel, proprietor of the broad land, 
Lord of creation, thou art chief of the land, 
The lord whose shining oil is food for an extensive offspring, 
The lord whose edicts bind together the city, 
The edict of whose dwelling place strikes down the great prince 
15. From the land of the rising to the land of the setting sun. 
O mountain, lord of life, thou art indeed lord! 
O Bel of the lands, lord of life, thou thyself art lord of life. 
O mighty one, terrible one of heaven, thou art guardian indeed! 
O Bel, thou art lord of the gods indeed! 
20. Thou art father, Bel, who causest the plants of the gardens to grow! 
O Bel, thy great glory may they fear! 
The birds of heaven and the fish of the deep are filled with fear [of thee]. 
O father Bel, in great strength thou goest, prince of life, shepherd of the 
stars! 
O lord, the secret of production thou openest, the feast of fatness estab- 
lishest, to work thou callest! 
25. Father Bel, faithful prince, mighty prince, thou createst the strength of 
life! 


A line at the end states that the hymn consisted of 25 lines. 

It is a hymn to Bel of Nippur, whose Sumerian name was Enlil. 
It reveals an exalted conception of Bel as supreme ruler, as a god 
who gives life, as a god of justice whose rule holds society together, 
but it lacks both the poetical sublimity and the religious depth and 
fire of the Hebrew psalms. 


1Translated from Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets, &c., in the British Museum, 
XV, 10. 
2 An epithet of the inhabitants of Babylonia. 


462 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


6. An Egyptian Hymn to the Sun-god (about 1400 B. C.).! 


Hail to thee, beautiful god of every day! 
Rising in the morning without ceasing, 
[Not] wearied in labor. 
When thy rays are visible, 
. Gold is not considered, 
It is not like thy brilliance. 
Thou art a craftsman shaping thy own limbs; 
Fashioner without being fashioned; 
Unique in his qualities, traversing eternity; 

10. Over ways with millions under his guidance. 

Thy brilliance is like the brilliance of the sky, 

Thy colors gleam more than the hues of it. 

When thou sailest across the sky all men behold thee, 
(Though) thy going is hidden from their sight: 

15. When thou showest thyself at morning every day, 
MSS £8 under thy majesty, though the day be brief, 
Thou traversest a journey of leagues, 

Even millions and hundred-thousands of time. 
Every day is under thee. 
20. When thy setting comes, 
The hours of the night hearken to thee likewise. 
When thou hast traversed it 
There comes no ending to thy labors. 
All men—they see by means of thee. 
25. Nor do they finish when thy majesty sets, 
For thou wakest to rise in the morning, 
And thy radiance, it opens the eyes (again). 
When thou settest in Manu,? 
Then they sleep like the dead. 

30. Hail to thee! O disc of day, 

Creator of all and giver of their sustenance, 
Great Falcon, brilliantly plumaged, 

Brought forth to raise himself on high of himself, 
Self-generator, without being born. 

35. Firstborn Falcon in the midst of the sky, 

To whom jubilation is made at the rising and the setting likewise. 
Fashioner of the produce of the soil, 


cee ee eR eH OH OO we Oe 8 8 6S Oe 8 wee ws Ol oe pl ee ey ge ee lm 


on 


Taking possession of the Two Lands (Egypt), from great to small— 
40. A mother profitable to gods and men, 

A craftsman of experience,.......... 

Valiant herdsman who drives cattle, 

Their refuge and the giver of their sustenance, 

Who passes by, running the course of the sun-god, 
45. Who determines his own birth, 

Exalting his beauty in the body of Nut, 

Illuminating the Two Lands (Egypt) with his disc, 

The primordial being, who himself made himself; 

Who beholds that which he has made, 


1 Taken from Breasted’s Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, p. 315, f. 
2 A fabulous mountain beyond the western horizon, over which the sun was believed to pass at 
evening. 


50. 


Dos 


PSALMS FROM BABYLONIA AND EGYPT = 463 


Sole lord taking captive all lands every day, 
As one beholding them that walk therein; 
Shining in the sky a being as the sun. 

He makes the seasons by the months, 

Heat when he desires, 

Cold when he desires. 

He makes the limbs to languish 

When he enfolds them, 

Every land is in rejoicing 

At his rising every day, in order to praise him. 


This hymn is, so far as its expressions go, monotheistic. One 
would not dream from it that there was any god but the sun-god. 
Nevertheless, other gods were worshiped. The monotheism here 
expressed was not of the intolerant kind which prevailed in Israel, 
and which ultimately put down the worship of all rival deities. 

Such an intolerant monotheism was introduced into Egypt by 
Amenophis IV (see Part I, p. 29), who took an old name for the 
sun disc, Aton, as the name of the one god, and who tried to sup- 
press the worship of all other gods. The movement failed, but 
while it lasted it produced the following beautiful hymn. 


7. 


10. 


15, 


20. 


An Egyptian Hymn in Praise of Aton.! 


Thy dawning is beautiful in the horizon of the sky, 
O loving Aton, Beginning of life! 

When thou risest in the eastern horizon, 

Thou fillest every land with thy beauty. 


. Thou art beautiful, great, glittering, high above every land, 


Thy rays, they encompass the lands, even all that thou hast made, 
Thou art Re,? and thou carriest them all away captive; 

Thou bindest them by thy love. 

Though thou art far away, thy rays are upon the earth; 

Though thou art on high, thy footprints are the day. 


When thou settest in the western horizon of the sky, 
The earth is in darkness like the dead; 
They sleep in their chambers, 

Their heads are wrapped up, 

Their nostrils are stopped, 

And none seeth the other, 

While all their things are stolen 

Which are under their heads, 

And they know it not. 

Every lion cometh forth from his den, 

All serpents, they sting. 

Le Sg ae eee 

The world is in silence; 

He that made them resteth in his horizon. 


1 Taken from Breasted’s Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, p. 324, f. 
2 There is a pun on the word Re; it is the same as “all.” Such puns are frequent in the Hebrew 
of the Old Testament prophets. 


464 


vy 


30. 


35. 


45. 


50. 


aos 


60. 


65. 


70. 


ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Bright is the earth when thou risest in the horizon. 
When thou shinest as Aton by day 

Thou drivest away the darkness. 

When thou sendest forth thy rays, 

The Two Lands (Egypt) are in daily festivity, 
Awake and standing upon their feet 

When thou hast raised them up. 

Their limbs bathed, they take their clothing, 
Their arms uplifted in adoration to thy dawning. 
(Then) in all the world they do their work. 


All cattle rest upon their pasturage, 

The trees and the plants flourish, 

The birds flutter in their marshes, 

Their wings uplifted in adoration to thee. 
All the sheep dance upon their feet, 


. All wingéd things fly, 


They live when thou hast shone upon them. 


The barques sail upstream and downstream alike. 
Every highway is open because thou dawnest. 
The fish in the river leap up before thee. 

The rays are in the midst of the great green sea. 


Creator of the germ in woman, 

Maker of seed in man, 

Giving life to the son in the body of his mother, 

Soothing him that he may not weep, 

Nurse (even) in the womb, 

Giver of breath to animate every one that he maketh! 

When he cometh forth from the body...... on the day of his birth, 
Thou openest his mouth in speech, 

Thou suppliest his necessities. 


When the fledgling in the egg chirps in the shell, 
Thou givest him breath therein to preserve him alive. 
When thou hast brought him together, 

To (the point of) bursting it in the egg, 

He cometh forth from the egg 

To chirp with all his might. 

He goeth about on his two feet 

When he hath come forth therefrom. 


How manifold are thy works!! 
They are hidden from before (us), 
O sole God, whose powers no other possesseth. 
Thou didst create the earth according to thy heart 
While thou wast alone: 
Men, all cattle large and small, 
All that are upon the earth, 
That go about upon their feet; 
[All] that are on high, 
That fly with their wings. 
The foreign countries, Syria and Kush, 
1 Compare Psa. 104 : 24. 


75. 


80. 


85. 


90. 


95. 


100. 


105. 


110. 


nes 


120. 


PSALMS FROM BABYLONIA AND EGYPT 


The land of Egypt; 

Thou settest every man into his place, 

Thou suppliest their necessities. 

Every one has his possessions, 

And his days are reckoned. 

The tongues are divers in speech, 

Their forms likewise and their skins are distinguished. 
(For) thou makest different the strangers. 


Thou makest the Nile. in the Nether World, 
Thou bringest it as thou desirest, 

To preserve alive the people. 

For thou hast made them for thyself, 

The lord of them all, resting among them; 
Thou lord of every land, who risest for them, 
Thou Sun of day, great in majesty. 

All the distant countries, 

Thou makest (also) their life, 

Thou hast set a Nile in the sky; 

When it falleth for them, 

It maketh waves upon the mountains, 

Like the great green sea, 

Watering their fields in their towns. 


How excellent are thy designs, O lord of eternity! 

There is a Nile in the sky for the strangers 

And for the cattle of every country that go upon their feet. 
(But) the Nile, it cometh from the Nether World for Egypt. 


Thy rays nourish every garden; 

When thou risest they live, 

They grow by thee. 

Thou makest the seasons 

In order to create all thy work: 

Winter to bring them coolness, 

And heat that they may taste thee. 

Thou didst make the distant sky to rise therein, 
In order to behold all that thou hast made, 
Thou alone, shining in thy form as living Aton, 
Dawning, glittering, going afar and returning. 
Thou makest millions of forms 

Through thyself alone; 

Cities, towns, and tribes, highways and rivers. 
All eyes see before them, 

For thou art Aton of the day over the earth. 
Thou art in my heart, 

There is no other that knoweth thee 

Save thy son Ikhnaton.! 

Thou hast made him wise 

In thy designs and in thy might. 

The world is in thy hand, 


465 


1Tkhnaton is the name adopted by Amenophis IV in connection with his reform. It means 


“ Aton’s man.” 


sentiment of lines 120, 121, compare Matt. 11 : 27. 


His old name meant ‘“‘ Amon is gracious’”’ and had heathen associations. 


On the 


4.56 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


125. Even as thou hast made them. 
When thou hast risen they live, 
When thou settest they die; 
For thou art length of life of thyself, 
Men live through thee, 
130. While (their) eyes are upon thy beauty 
Until thou settest. 
All labor is put away 
When thou settest in the west. 
135. Thou didst establish the world, 
And raise them up for thy son, 
Who came forth from thy limbs, 
The king of Upper and Lower Egypt, 
Living in Truth, Lord of the Two Lands, 
140. Nefer-khepru-Re, Wan-Re (Ikhnaton), 
Son of Re, living in Truth, lord of diadems, 
Ikhnaton, whose life is long; 
And for the chief royal wife, his beloved, 
Mistress of the Two Lands, Nefer-nefru-Aton, Nofretete, 
145. Living and flourishing for ever and ever. 


8. Comparison with the Psalter. 
This long hymn contains many beautiful passages, and, in addi- 


tion to the line “How manifold are thy works!”’ often reminds one of . 


Psa. 104, though in religious feeling it falls well below that psalm. 
Ikhnaton speaks of himself toward the end of his hymn as the one 
““whose life is long,” but the poor fellow died before he was thirty 
years old! His mummy was found a few years ago, and it is that 
of a young man. Vain were his hopes, unless his words refer to 
. the immortal life. 

These Egyptian hymns, like the Babylonian, exhibit a high 
degree of poetic and intellectual power, and much deep religious 
feeling, but the men who wrote them somehow lacked that deep 
religious insight and simple power of emotional expression that were 
given to the Hebrews. Their compositions but set in clearer relief 
the beauty, depth, and inspirational power of the Hebrew Psalms. 

1 See Weigall, The Treasury of Ancient Egypt, London, 1911, p. 206. 


CHAPTER XXIV 


PARALLELS TO PROVERBS AND ECCLESIASTES 


THE NATURE OF THE BOOK OF PROVERBS AND THE PARALLELS. BABYLONIAN PROv- 
ERBS FROM THE LIBRARY OF ASHURBANIPAL. PRECEPTS FROM THE LIBRARY OF ASHUR- 
BANIPAL. COMPARISON WITH THE BIBLE. EGYPTIAN PRECEPTS OF PTAHHOTEP. 
COMPARISON WITH THE BIBLE. PARALLEL TO ECCLESIASTES FROM THE GILGAMESH EPIC. 


Bot Egypt and Babylon furnish parallels to the book of Prov- 
erbs. The Biblical book of Proverbs contains a long connected 
discourse of advice (Prov. 1-9) and various collections of discon- 
nected proverbs (Prov. 10-29). Parallels to both are found in 
Egypt and in Babylonia. The library of Ashurbanipal contained 
a collection of proverbs in two languages, arranged as reading 
lessons for students. A few examples are here given. 


1. Some Babylonian Proverbs from the Library of Ashurbanipal.! 


1. A hostile act thou shalt not perform, that fear of vengeance (?) shall not 
consume thee. 
2. Thou shalt not do evil, that life (?) eternal thou mayest obtain. 
3. Does a woman conceive when a virgin, or grow great without eating? 
4, If I put anything down it is snatched away; if I do more than is expected, 
who will repay me? 
5. He has dug a well where no water is; he has raised a husk without kernel. 
6. Does a marsh receive the price of its reeds, or fields the price of their 
vegetation? 
7. The strong live by their own wages; the weak by the wages of their 
children. 
8. He is altogether good, but he is clothed with darkness. 
9. The face of a toiling ox thou shalt not strike with a goad. 
10. My knees go, my feet are unwearied; but a fool has cut into my course. 
11. His ass I am; Iam harnessed to a mule; a wagon I draw; to seek reeds and 
fodder I go forth. 
12. The life of day before yesterday has departed today. 
13. If the husk is not right, the kernel is not right; it will not produce seed. 
14. The tall grain thrives, but what do we understand of it? The meager 
grain thrives, but what do we understand of it? 
15. The city whose weapons are not strong—the enemy before its gates shall 
not be thrust through. 


1 The first twenty are culled from a tablet in the British Museum, published by Langdon in the 
American Journal of Semitic Languages, Vol. XXVIII, 217-243, under the title “Babylonian Prov- 
erbs.” For convenience those quoted are numbered consecutively without reference to the parts 
omitted. 

467 


468 ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


16. If thou goest and takest the field of an enemy, the enemy will come and 
take thy field. 

17. Upon a glad heart oil is poured out of which no one knows. 

18. Friendship is for the day of trouble; posterity for the future. 

19. An ass in another city becomes its head. 


The idea is similar to Matt. 13 : 57: “A prophet is not without 
honor, save in his own country, and in his own house.” 


20. Writing is the mother of eloquence and the father of artists. 

21. Be gentle to thy enemy as to an old oven.! 

22. The gift of the king is the nobility of the exalted; the gift of the king is 
the favor of governors. 

23. Friendship in days of prosperity is servitude forever. 

24. There is strife where servants are; slander where anointers anoint. 

25. When thou seest the gain of the fear of god, exalt god and bless the king.? 


2. Precepts from the Library of Ashurbanipal.’ 


Thou shalt not slander, (but) speak kindly; 

Thou shalt not speak evil, (but) show mercy. 

Him who slanders (and) speaks evil, 

With its recompense will Shamash‘ visit (?) his head. 


Thou shalt not make large thy mouth, but guard thy lip; 
In the time of anger thou shalt not speak at once. 

If thou speakest quickly, thou wilt repent (?) afterward, 
And in silence wilt thou sadden thy mind. 


Daily present to thy god 

Offering and prayer, appropriate to incense. 
Before thy god mayest thou have a pure heart, 
For that is appropriate to deity. 


Prayer, petition, and prostration 
Early in the morning shalt thou render him; he will judge thy burdens (?), 
And with the help of God thou wilt be abundantly prosperous. 


In thy wisdom learn of the tablet; 
The fear (of God) begets favor, 
Offering enriches life, 

And prayer brings forgiveness of sins. 


(The text of the rest is too broken for connected translation.) 


3. Comparison with the Bible. 

None of the sentiments expressed in these proverbs is identical 
with any in the Bible. No.21is on the same subject as Prov. 24: 17; 
No. 22 reminds one slightly of the first clause of Prov. 14: 35; No. 23 


1 Translated from Delitzsch’s Assyrische Lesesticke, 4th ed., p. 118, f. 

2 Translated from Meissner’s Beitrige zum Altbabylonischen Privatrecht, p. 108. 
3 Taken from Macmillan’s translation, Beitrage zur Assyriologie, V, 557, ff. 

4 The sun-god, the god of justice. 


PARALLELS TO PROVERBS AND ECCLESIASTES 469 


has the same sentiment as Prov. 18 : 24: “He that maketh many 
friends doeth it to his own destruction’; while No. 6 is somewhat 
similar to Prov. 24 : 21. 

Among the “precepts,”’ that on guarding the lips recalls to one’s 
mind Prov. 10 : 19; 13 :3;14:3;17:28. Reference is made to the 
“gain of the fear of God” and it is declared to “beget favor.’’ Job 
28 : 28 declares ‘‘the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom.” 

4. The Precepts of Ptahhotep. 

These precepts are attributed to a man who lived in the time 
of the fifth Egyptian dynasty, about 2650 B. c., and are at least as 
old as 2000 B. c. The text is very difficult. The examples given 
below are taken from Breasted’s! condensation of the moral precepts 
which the treatise contains. 


1. If thou findest a wise man in his time, a leader of understanding more 
excellent than thou, bend thy arms and bow thy back. 

2. If thou findest a wise man in his time, thy equal,.......... be not silent 
when he speaks evil. Great is the approval by those who hear, and thy name will 
be good in the knowledge of the princes. 

3. If thou findest a wise man in his time, a poor man and not thy equal, be 
not overbearing against him when he is unfortunate. 

4. If thou art a leader (or administrator) issuing ordinances for the multitude, 
seek for thee very excellent matter, that thy ordinance may endure without evil 


therein. Great is righteousness (truth, right, justice), enduring.......... sat 
has not been disturbed since the time of Osiris. 
5. Put no fear (of thee?) among the people.......... What the god com- 


mands is that which happens. Therefore live in the midst of quiet. What 
they (the gods?) give comes of itself. 

6. If thou art a man of those who sit by the seat of a man greater than thou, 
take what (food) he gives,...... look at what is before thee, and bombard him 
not with many glances (don’t stare at him)...... Speak not to him until he 
calls. One knows not what is unpleasant to (his) heart. Speak thou when he 
greets thee, and what thou sayest will be agreeable to (his) heart. 

7. If thou art a man of those who enter, whom (one) prince sends to (an- 
other) prince,...... execute for him the commission according as he saith. 
Beware of altering a word which (one) prince speaks to (another) prince, by 
displaying the truth with the like of it. 

8. If thou plowest and there is growth in the field, the god gives it (as) 
increase in thy hand. Satisfy not thy own mouth beside thy kin. 

9. If thou art insignificant, follow an able man and all thy proceedings shall 
be good before the god. 

10. Follow thy desire as long as thou livest. Do not more than is told (thee). 
Shorten not the time of following desire. It isan abomination to encroach upon 
the time thereof. Take no care daily beyond the maintenance of thy house. 
When possessions come, follow desire, (for) possessions are not complete when he 
(the owner) is harassed. 

[Compare with this precept Eccles. 11 : 9 and 7 : 15-17.] 


* Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, p. 231, f. Breasted’s references to the 
actions of the original text are here omitted. 


470 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


11. If thou art an able man, (give attention to the conduct of thy son). 

16. If thou art a leader (or administrator), hear quietly the speech of the 
petitioner. He who is suffering wrong desires that his heart be cheered to do 
that on account of which he hath come....... It is an ornament of the heart to 
hear kindly. 

17. If thou desirest to establish friendship in a house, into which thou enter- 
est as lord, as brother, or as friend, wheresoever thou enterest in, beware of 
approaching the women...... A thousand men are undone for the enjoyment of 
a brief moment likea dream. Men gain (only) death for knowing them. 

[Compare Prov. 5: 3, f.] 

18. If thou desirest that thy procedure be good, withhold thee from all evil, 
beware of occasion of avarice...... He who enters therein does not get on. It 
corrupts fathers, mothers, and mothers’ brothers. It divides wife and man; 
it is plunder (made up) of everything evil; it is a bundle of everything base. 
Established is the man whose standard is righteousness, who walks in its way. 
He is used to make his fortune thereby, (but) the avaricious is houseless. 

19. Be not avaricious in dividing...... Be not avaricious towards thy kin. 
Greater is the fame of the gentle than (that of) the harsh. 

20. If thou art successful, establish thy house. Love thy wife in husbandly 
embrace, fill her body, clothe her back. The recipe for her limbs is ointment. 
Gladden her heart as long as thou livest. She is a profitable field for her lord. 

[Compare Eccles. 9 : 9.] 

21. Satisfy those who enter to thee (come into thy office) with that which 
thou hast. 

22. Repeat not a word of hearsay. 

23. If thou art an able man who sits in the council of his lord, summon thy 
understanding to excellent things. Be silent. 

24. If thou art a strong man, establish the respect of thee by wisdom and by 
quietness of speech. 

25. Approach not a prince in his time. [Apparently an idiom for some par- 
ticular mood. |] 

26. Instruct a prince (or official) in that which is profitable for him. 

27. If thou art the son of a man of the council, commissioned to content the 
multitude,...... be not partial. Beware lest he (the man of the multitude?) 
say, “His plan is that of the princes. He utters the words in partiality.” 

29. If thou becomest great after thou wert little, and gettest possessions after 
thou wert formerly poor in the city,...... be not proud-hearted because of thy 
wealth. It has come to thee as a gift of the god. 

30. Bend thy back to thy superior, thy overseer of the king’s house, and thy 
house shall endure because of his (or its) possessions and thy reward shall be in 
the place thereof. It is evil to show disobedience to a superior. One lives as 
long as he is gentle. 

31. Do not practise corruption of children. 

32. If thou searchest the character of a friend,...... transact the matter with 
him when he is alone. 

33. Let thy face be bright as long as thou livest. As for what goes out of the 
storehouse, it comes not in again; and as for loaves (already) distributed, he who 
is concerned therefor has still an empty stomach. [‘‘There is no use in crying 
over spilt milk.’’] 

34. Know thy merchants when thy fortunes are evil. 

37. If thou hearkenest to these things which I have said to thee, all thy plans 
will progress. As for the matter of the righteousness thereof, it is their worth. 


PARALLELS TO PROVERBS AND ECCLESIASTES 471 


The memory thereof shall circulate in the mouths of men, because of the beauty 
of their utterances. Every word will be carried on and not perish in this land 
forever... -.... He who understands discretion is profitable in establishing that 
through which he succeeds on earth. A wise man is satisfied by reason of that 
which he knows. As for a prince of good qualities, they are in his heart and 
tongue. His lips are right when he speaks, his eyes see, and his ears together 
hear what is profitable for his son. Do right (righteousness, justice, truth), free 
from lying. 

38. Profitable is hearkening for a son that hearkens...... How good is it 
when a son receives that which his father says. He shall reach advanced age 
thereby. A hearkener is one whom the god loves. Who hearkens not is one 
whom the god hates. It is the heart (= understanding) which makes its pos- 
sessor a hearkener or one not hearkening. The life, health, and prosperity of a 
man is his heart. The hearkener is one who hears and speaks. He who does 
what is said is one who loves to hearken. How good it is when a son hearkens 
to his father! How happy is he to whom these things are said!...... His mem- 


39. If the son of a man receives what his father says, none of his plans will 
miscarry. Instruct as thy son one who hearkens, who shall be successful in the 
judgment of the princes, who directs his mouth according to that which is said 
oe hoe Bae How many mishaps befall him who hearkens not! The wise man 
rises early to establish himself, while the fool is scourged. 

[With the first of this section compare Exod. 20:12; Deut.5:16. With 
the end of it, Prov. 6 : 9-11; 10 : 26; 13 :4.] 

40. As for the fool who hearkens not, he accomplishes nothing. He regards 
wisdom as ignorance, and what is profitable as diseased....... His life is death 
BITOOY Gos s.0 5 he dies, living every day. Men pass by (avoid?) his qualities, 
because of the multitude of evils upon him every day. 

41. Ason who hearkens isa follower of Horus. He prospers after he hearkens. 
He reaches old age, he attains reverence. He speaks likewise to his (own) 
children, renewing the instruction of his father. Every man who instructs is 
like his sire. He speaks with his children; then they speak to their children. 


ae chafacter,...... make righteousness to flourish and thy children shall 
ive. 
AT cata ae: vd Let thy attention be steadfast as long as thou speakest, 


whither thou directest thy speech. May the princes who shall hear say, “How 
good is that which comes out of his mouth!” 

43. So do that thy lord shall say to thee, ‘How good is the instruction of his 
father from whose limbs he came forth! He has spoken to him; it is in (his) 
body throughout. Greater is that which he hath done than that which was said 
to him.” Behold, a good son, whom the god gives, renders more than his lord 
says tohim. He does right (righteousness, etc.), his heart acts according to his 
way. According as thou attainest me (‘‘what I have attained”’), thy limbs shall 
be healthy, the king shall be satisfied with all that occurs, and thou shalt attain 
years of life not less than I have passed on the earth. I have attained one 
hundred and ten years of life [compare Gen. 50 : 26], while the king gave to me 
praise above (that of) the ancestors (in the vizierial office) because I did right- 
eousness for the king even unto the place of reverence (the grave). 


5. Comparison with the Bible. 

These precepts, which were written before 1800 B. c., like most 
of those in the book of Proverbs, embody much worldly wisdom. 
They are based on experience, and while, like Proverbs, they 


472 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


sometimes urge a religious motive as a reason for right conduct, 
they frankly advocate it, as Proverbs often does, on the ground 
of expediency. The points where the text is closely parallel to that 
of Proverbs are few, and these have been sufficiently pointed 
out. Some of the passages, as already noted, are closely parallel — 
to parts of the book of Ecclesiastes. The religious appeal of the 
precepts is to Egyptian polytheism, while that of Proverbs is to 
Hebrew monotheism. 

6. A Parallel to Ecclesiastes. 

The following striking parallel to a passage in Ecclesiastes is 
taken from a tablet of the Gilgamesh Epic, written in the script of 
the time of Hammurapi, about 2000 B. c. ~ 


Since the gods created man, 

Death they ordained for man, 

Life in their hands they hold. 

Thou, O Gilgamesh, fill indeed thy belly, 
Day and night be thou joyful, 

Daily ordain gladness, 

Day and night rage and make merry, 
Let thy garments be bright, 

Thy head purify, wash with water, 
Desire thy children which thy hand possesses, 
A wife enjoy in thy bosom, 

Peaceably thy work (?).......... 


This is not only in sentiment strikingly like Eccles. 9 : 6-9, but 
in part closely approaches its language. 


1The Gilgamesh Epic is an early Babylonian poem in twelve tablets or cantos. It is a 
collection of early legends and myths. The Babylonian account of the flood, translated in 
Chapter VI (Part II), forms the eleventh canto of it. 

* Translated from the Mitteilungen der vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft, 1902, Heft 1D. 8.) 


CHAPTER XXV 


EGYPTIAN PARALLELS TO THE SONG OF SONGS 


NATURE OF THE SONG OF SONGS. TRANSLATION OF SOME EGYPTIAN LOVE-POEMS. 
COMPARISON WITH BIBLICAL PAssaces. A BABYLONIAN SONG OF SONGS. 


For many centuries the Song of Songs has been interpreted al- 
legorically, but even those who give it an allegorical meaning must 
admit that its sentiments are couched in the terms of earthly love. 
Love poems, which sometimes express sentiments that remind us 
of the Song of Songs, have been discovered on some Egyptian papyri 
and ostraca. The documents in which they are written range in 
their dates from 2000 B. c. to about 1100 B. c. Selections from 
these follow:! 

I? 
Thy love has penetrated all within me 
Like [honey?] plunged into water, 


Like an odor which penetrates spices, 
As when one mixes juice in.......... 


[Nevertheless] thou runnest to seek thy sister, 
Like the steed upon the battlefield, 
As [the warrior rolls along] on the spokes of his wheels. 


For heaven makes thy love 
Like the advance of [flames in straw], 
And its [longing] like the downward swoop of a hawk. 


IT® 


Disturbed is the condition (?) of [my] pool. 
[The mouth] of my sister is a rosebud. 

Her breast is a perfume. 

Her arm [isa...... bough? ] 

[Which offers] a delusive seat. 

Her forehead is a snare of meryu-wood. 


I am a wild goose, a hunted one (?), 
My gaze is at thy hair, 

At a bait under the trap 

That is to catch (?) me. 


.. 1! These are translated from the German rendering in W. Max Miiller’s Liebpoesie der alien 
Agypter, Leipzig, 1899. 
2From Miiller, p. 15. 8 Ibid., p. 16. 


473 


474 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


“Brother” and “sister” are terms frequently applied to lovers 
in these poems. Perhaps it arose from an ancient custom of mar- 
riages between brothers and sisters, which was perpetuated in the 
royal families of Egypt down to Roman times. 

The description of the physical attractions of the loved one 


reminds one of Cant. 4 : 1-7. 
Ilr? 


Is my heart not softened by thy love-longing for me? 
My dogfoot-(fruit) which excites thy passion,— 

Not will I allow it 

To depart from me. 


Although cudgeled even to the “Guard of the overflow,’ 
To Syria, with shebéd-rods and clubs, 

To Ethiopia, with palm-rods, 

To the highlands, with switches, 

To the lowlands, with twigs, 


Never will I listen to their counsel, 
To abandon longing. 
Iv 


The voice of the wild goose cries, 
(Where) she has seized their bait, 
(But) thy love holds me back, 

I am unable to liberate her. 


I must, then, take home my net! 
What shall I say to my mother, 

To whom formerly I came each day 
Loaded down with fowls? 


I shall not set the snares today 
For thy love has caught me. 7 


This is a vivid description of the power of the tender passion. 


vi 


The wild goose flies up and soars, 
She sinks down upon the net. 


The birds cry in flocks, 
But I hasten [homeward], 
Since I care for thy love alone. 


My heart yearns for thy breast, ( 
I cannot sunder myself from thy attractions. 


1From Miiller, ibzd., p. 17. 

2 Perhaps the name of a Nileometer station in the vicinity of Memphis. 
8 Miller, ibzd., p. 22. 

4 Miiller, zbid., p. 22. 


EGYPTIAN PARALLELS TO SONG OF SONGS 475 


This is a continuation of the preceding. 


vir 


Thou beautiful one! My heart’s desire is 
To procure for thee thy food as thy husband, 
My arm resting upon thy arm.’ 


Thou hast changed me by thy love. 
Thus say I in my heart, 

In my soul, at my prayers: 

“T lack my commander tonight, 

I am as one dwelling in a tomb.” 


Be thou but in health and strength,’ 

Then the nearness of thy countenance 

Sheds delight, by reason of thy well-being, 
Over a heart, which seeks thee (with longing). 


This poem expresses on the part of the man a longing similar to 
that expressed by the woman in Cant. 8 : 1-3. 


VII‘ 


The voice of the dove calls, 

It says: ‘The earth is bright.” 

What have I to do outside? 

Stop, thou birdling! Thou chidest me! 


I have found my brother in his bed, 
My heart is glad beyond all measure. 
We each say: 

“JT will not tear myself away.” 


My hand is in his hand. 

I wander together with him 

To every beautiful place. 

He makes me the first of maidens, 
Nor does he grieve my heart. 


4 


In this poem the loved woman speaks, as in Cant. 8 : 1-3. 


VItie 


Sa‘am-plants are in it, 
In the presence of which one feels oneself uplifted! 


I am thy darling sister, 
I am to thee like a bit of land, 
With each shrub of grateful fragrance. 


1 Miiller, zbid., p. 23. 

2 Married couples are usually so represented in Egyptian pictures. 
3 The Egyptian is here followed, rather than the German. 

4 Miiller, p. 24. 

5Jbid., p. 27. It describes a walk in a garden. 


476 ARCHAOLOGY .AND THE BIBLE 


Lovely is the water-conduit in it, 
Which thy hand has dug, 

While the north wind cooled us. 
A beautiful place to wander, 


Thy hand in my hand, 
My soul inspired, 

My heart in bliss, 
Because we go together. 


New wine it is, to hear thy voice; 
I live for hearing it. 

To see thee with each look, 

Is better than eating and drinking. 


The figure of the garden, with which this poem begins, is also 
used in Cant. 5:1 and 6: 2, 3. 


Ix! 


Ta-’a-ti-plants are in it! 

I take thy garlands away, 

When thou comest home drunken, 

And when thou art lying in thy bed 
When I touch thy feet, 

(And) children are (?) in thy.......... 


[I rise up] rejoicing in thé morning 
Thy nearness [means to me] health and strength. 


In ancient as in modern times wives loved fondly, while husbands 
gave way to drunkenness. 

The poems as a whole make it clear that in Egypt love, which 
lies at the basis of all home life, and is in the New Testament made a 
figure of the relation of Christ to the Church (see John 3 : 29; Rev. 
21: 2, 9), was as warmly felt as in Israel, and was likewise poetically 
and passionately expressed. 


A BABYLONIAN SONG OF SONGS 


Among the texts from Ashur published during the year 1919 
there is one which furnishes a Babylonian parallel to the book. 
It is part of a hymn or song employed in the worship of Tammuz. 
The “son” in it, originally Tammuz the son of the goddess Ishtar, 
is employed as the designation of the ideal lover. In the first 
strophe a woman speaks; in the second, a man; in the third, a 
woman; in the fourth, a man. The text reads as follows: 


How do I delight in joy? 

When the lord of my right hand embraces me! 

1 The garden again. 

? Translated from Ebeling, work cited, No. 158, pages 273, 274. Ebeling has presented a 
German translation of a part of it in the M ittheilungen der deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft, No. 58, 
1917, p. 49 f., but it is a garbled translation. He has omitted many lines apparently because they 
were difficult. 


EGYPTIAN PARALLELS TO SONG OF SONGS 


He receives me; I spread out my arms to the son! 
When, O lord, wilt thou enter in hither? 

J press against thy breast; 

With pleasant odors is the night bewitched. 

The name of the son I share; 

I look on the fat of the land. 

When he imparts secrets there is joy of heart! 
For me, O son, brightness increases. 


The bride is to me like a fragrant cedar— 

A strong cedar that sustains (?) the dwelling! 
Illustrious, brilliant, 

It establishes our joy—our life! 

The odors of cedar refine life! 

At the door of the lord she is jubilant 

On this evening, this night. 

How luxurious she is! How brilliant! 

The mighty ones of the garden shall behold thy charms. 
Today my heart is joyfully tuneful. 


There has gone down to the garden! the king who fells the cedar. 
Thou, O son, lovest our breast! 

Across the river is a joyful city; 

Our place at the approach (?) of the month is jubilant! 

Yonder one is going, O son; 

When he is away, thou art my companion! 

A bird, a dove passes; the light of Eros is thy gift, 

Who art a god doing right! The garden is jubilant! 

The day the god stands in Larsa the god 

Is jubilant; he is full of passion! 


Rejoice! Nana is in the garden, the abode which thou lovest! 
A maiden is brought; her heart is glad! 

Thus do I rejoice continually! 

I rejoice in thee, O divine child! 

My sealed eyes are full of sleep! 

Thy love is indeed a jewel! 

The enjoyment of thee, verily gold! 

My love is a light which illumines the darkness! 

Tonight J think upon thee! 


He opened his mouth: 

“After thou hast lain in the bosom of the son 
Thy waist (?) is a mountain of lapis-lazuli! 
Joyfully I present the king! 

Blessed is the darkness (?)! 

In thy love is abundant life!” 

Love causes embracings! 


1 The phrase and idea are strikingly similar to Cant. 6: 2: 
My beloved is gone down to his garden.......... 
To feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies. 


477 


478 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Comment seems unnecessary. While the lines have a Baby- 
lonian and a polytheistic flavor, the general theme—the praise of 
the charms of two lovers for one another—is identical with the 
theme of the Song of Songs, and the delight in love which breathes 
from the lines is similar to that which is expressed in Canticles. 
Occasionally a phrase reminds one of a phrase in Canticles and the 
figure of the garden comes in a similar way into both this poem and 
the Song of Songs. 


CHAPTER XXVI 
ILLUSTRATIONS OF PASSAGES IN THE PROPHETS 


UNIQUENESS OF THE PROPHETIC Books. SOME EGYPTIAN PROPHECIES. AN ASSYRIAN 
PROPHETIC VISION. COMPARISON WITH THE BIBLE. THE EGYPTIAN SocraL COon- 
SCIENCE. TALE OF THE ELOQUENT PEASANT. COMPARISON WITH THE BIBLE. AN 
IDEAL Kinc; EXTRACT FROM THE ADMONITIONS OF IPUWER. COMPARISON WITH 
MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS. SHEOL. ISHTAR’S DESCENT TO THE UNDER-WORLD. 
COMPARISON WITH PROPHETIC PAssAGES. A LAMENTATION FOR TAMMUZ. THE FALL 
OF NINEVEH. 


THERE is no other body of literature which closely corresponds 
to the books of the Hebrew prophets. The depth of their social 
passion and the power of their moral and religious insight form a 
unique combination. Nevertheless, texts which have come from 
Babylonia and Egypt do show that certain phases of prophetic 
thought were not without parallels elsewhere. At times they also 
illustrate for us thoughts and practices which the prophets abhorred. 
A few such texts are here translated. 

1. Some Egyptian Prophecies. 

In the priesthoods connected with ancient Egyptian temples 
there was a division or class called “prophets.” Some of the pre- 
dictions of these men have survived to our time. Their character 
may be ascertained from the following examples: 


THE PROPHECY OF AN EGYPTIAN PRIEST FROM THE REIGN OF 
KING SENEFERU BEFORE 2900 B. C.! 


The papyrus on which the prophecy is written is torn at the be- 
ginning. The burden of the prediction is that the people of a 
foreign land will drink from the water of Egyptian rivers. It is to 
this that the first broken line refers. 


To refresh themselves.............. 

This land shall be plundered............ 

AO ees x of the land is unfortunate (?), forms arise not (?); 
One grasps the weapon of terror, 

The land lives in uproar, 

Hack mouth is fullof,.............-. 

All good flies away, 

The land is going to destruction, as (?) is appointed for it. 


1 Translated from Ranke’s German version in Gressmann’s Altorientalischer Texte und Bilder 
zum Alten Testament, p. 204, ff. 
479 


480 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


hes cia ene shall be injured............ 

Whatever one finds (?) shall be destroyed, 

Reduced to nothing.............. 

One plunders a man’s possessions...... whatever is without (?), 


I give to. thee, my lord: 227.4 se.) eee 
To bring to silence the mouth that speaks. 
One replies... ...: 

One commands (?) thereupon to kill (?) him. 


eeevceeeer eee eee ee ee wee eee ewes 


The crop is small, the corn-measure great, 

It will be measured when just sprouting (2) 

The sun dissolves........ mankind........ 

It shines but for an hour; 

One notes not when it is midday, 

One counts not the shadows, 

Faces are not illumined, if one behold a (?)... . them, 
One: ventures noth a ee eee 

It (the sun) is as the...... of heaven, as the moon, 
At its time of...... it does not pass over. 
ites te of its beams is not before it 

In its réle of predecessor. 

The land is in misfortune...... 

One asks after the health (?)........ 

I make the below (?) the above for thee........ 
One lives in this god. 

The poor will collect possessions, 

And the great will be brought to nought. 


A king will come from the south by the name of Ameni. 
He will be born from a woman of Nubia; 

He will be born in the city of Nechen; 

He will seize the crown of Upper Egypt 

And set the crown of Lower Egypt on his head. 

He will unite the double crown 

And happily join Horus and Set! in love. 

He will hasten through............ 

Mighty in his time (0 )p- sxtebis os sete 

The people will rejoice in the time of the son of man; 
His name shall endure for all eternity, 

For (?) they shall be far (?) from misfortune. 

He who entertains hostile thoughts 

Shall be confounded for fear of him. 

The Asiatics shall fall before his sword, 

The Lybians shall fall before his flame, 

The enemies before the rage of his...... 

And the riotously disposed before his strength, 
While the uraeus? is on his brow 

It quiets for him rebellious thoughts. 

One shall build “the walls of the ruler,” 

Which shall not permit the Asiatics to enter Egypt. 
They beg for water...... after the manner of...... 


1 Horus, the god of Lower Egypt, and Set, the god of Upper Egypt, are here symbols of the 
two kingdoms. 
2 The uraeus was the symbolic serpent on the head-dress of a king. 


ILLUSTRATIONS OF PASSAGES IN THE PROPHETS 481 


To give drink to their cattle. 

Truth shall again come into your state, 
While falsehood shall be expelled. 

He shall be glad on whom he shall look, 

He who shall be in the retinue of the king. 
A wise man shall sprinkle water for me 
When he sees that come to pass which I predict. 
One shall make the poor whole in........ 
(ne Gers for bread. ........... 

One laughs with laughter. ..... ile eae a 
We sleeps not... ... 6... 

A man’s heart is directed of itself 

And not directed by...... PORUS Ge, eal 


This text presents certain likenesses and certain differences to 
Hebrew prophecy. The references to the darkness of the sun sug- 
gest that the prophecy was called forth by an eclipse, the signifi- 
cance of which the prophet was called upon to interpret. This he 
did by uttering his forebodings of disaster. He went on, however, 
to prophesy that a king would arise who would expel all invaders, 
give Egypt a government of justice, and do for that country what 
many Hebrew prophets expected the Messiah to do for theirs. 
In this connection the Egyptian prophet’s use of the term “son of 
man” to describe the expected king is interesting. It is the term 
employed in Daniel 7 : 13 to describe the nature of the Messianic 
kingdom, applied later in Enoch 46:2, 48: 2, to the expected 
Messiah, and still later appropriated by Jesus as his self-designa- 
tion. 

1. Prophecy of a Lamb under King Bocchoris, 718-712 B. C.2 


Great is misfortune in Egypt. Heliopolis weeps in the east (?)........... 
Hermopolis (?) weeps........ They make the streets of Hebit.............. 
Thebes weeps........ The lamb concludes the execrations. Psenyris says to 
it (the lamb): “What...... °? It. (the lamb) says.::.:. “At the completion 
of 900 years I will smite Egypt.”...... He (a god?) will turn his face to Egypt. 
He yields before the foreign warriors. ..... Lies, violation of laws and statutes, 
as in Egypt continue (?)........ They” will® take i, 22: the chapels of the 
Egyptian gods to Nineveh for themselves (?) to the territory of Amor, he...... 
the men of Egypt go into the land of Syria, they shall smite his district, they 
shall find again the chapels of Egypt’s gods. 

Psenyris sent it (the lamb) ona new...... and delayed not to bring a barque 
to go to the place where the king was. One laid the roll of papyrus, con- 
cerning all the misfortune which would happen to Egypt, before the king. ..... 
The king said: ‘“Psenyris, look to the lamb; let it be installed in a chapel (?), 
let it be conveyed as a god; let it be on the earth as is the custom with regard 
to superiors.” 


This interesting oracle is so different from Hebrew prophecy 
that comment is unnecessary. The prophesying of the lamb may 
1 Translated from the German of the work cited on p. 479, note. 


482 ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


be compared with the speaking of Baalam’s ass in Num. 22: 
28-30. ; 

2. A Prophetic Vision. 

The following statement is taken from the annals of Ashurbanipal, 
King of Assyria, 668-626 B. c. It is the conclusion of a passage 
in which the king is relating this strenuous struggle with T iuman, 
King of Elam. Ashurbanipal tells how he poured out a libation to 
Ishtar of Arbela and offered to her a long prayer against the Elamite 
king. The narrative then continues :* 


In an hour of that night when I prayed to her, a seer lay down; he saw a 
prophetic dream. Ishtar caused him to see a vision of the night, and he an- 
nounced it to me, saying: “Ishtar who dwells at Arbela entered, and on her right 
and left she was behung with quivers, she was holding a bow in her left hand, she 
brandished a heavy sword to make war. Thou wast sitting before her. She, 
like the mother who bore thee, was speaking to thee and talking to thee. Ishtar, 
the exalted one of the gods, was appointing thee a message: “hou shalt expect 
to accomplish that? at the place which is situated before thee. I am coming.’ 
Thou wast answering her, saying: ‘Where thou goest I will go with thee, O lady 
of ladies.’ She repeated to thee, saying: ‘Thou...... indeed dwellest in the 
place of Nebo. Eat food, drink wine, appoint rejoicing, exalt my divinity 
until I go and accomplish this undertaking...... I will cause thee to accomplish 
the wish of thy heart. Thy face he shall not harm, thy feet he shall not resist; 
thy cry shall not come to nought.’ In the midst of battle she arms thee with 
the desolation of her goodness. She will protect thy whole body. Before her a 
fire is blown to capture thy foes.”’ 


The night vision of this seer reminds one a little of Isaiah’s 
vision of Jehovah in the temple (Isa. 6) and of Zechariah’s vision 
of Joshua and Satan (Zech. 3:1). The Hebrew prophets as late 
as the time of Jeremiah often received their divine messages in 
dreams. (See Jer. 23:27.) Assyria had something of the same 
ideas as Israel as to the revelations of deity to a prophet, but she 
lacked Israel’s ethical deity. 

3. The Egyptian Social Conscience. 

A remarkable appreciation of the rights of the common people 
is revealed in an Egyptian story called the “Tale of the Eloquent 
Peasant,”—a story which has come down to us in copies made be- 
fore 1800 B. c. It has been claimed that this tale indicates the 
existence of a social conscience in Egypt analogous to that of the 
Hebrew prophets. The principal part of the story is, accordingly, 
given here. 


1 Translated from Rawlinson’s Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, III, 32, 16, f. 
27. ¢., the thing thou hast prayed for. 


ILLUSTRATIONS OF PASSAGES IN THE PROPHETS 483 


The Eloquent Peasant! 


There was a man, Hunanup by name, a peasant of Sechet-hemat, and he had 
BONE sacs. by name. Then said this peasant to his wife: ‘“Behold, I am 
going down to Egypt to bring back bread for my children. Go in and measure 
the corn that we still have in our storehouse,........ bushel.”” Then he 
measured for her 8 (?) bushels of corn. Then this peasant said to his wife: 
“Behold, 2 bushels of corn shall be left for bread for thee and the children. 
But make for me the 6 bushels into bread and beer for each of the days [that 
I shall be on the road].”” Then this peasant went down to Egypt after he had 
loaded his asses with all the good products? of Sechet-hemat. 

This peasant set out and journeyed southward to Ehnas. He came to a point 
opposite Per-fefi, north of Medenit, and found there a man standing on the bank, 
Dehuti-necht by name, who was the son of a man named Iseri, who was one of 
the serfs of the chief steward, Meruitensi. 

Then said this Dehuti-necht, when he saw the asses of this peasant which 
appealed to his covetousness: “Oh that some good god would help me to rob 
this peasant of his goods!” 

The house of Dehuti-necht stood close to the side of the path, which was 
narrow, not wide. It was about the width ofa...... -cloth, and upon one side 
of it was the water and upon the other side was growing grain. Then said 
Dehitu-necht to his servant: ‘“Hasten and bring me a shawl from the house!’ 
And it was brought at once. Then he spread this shawl upon the middle of the 
road, and it extended, one edge to the water, and the other to the corn. 

The peasant came along the path which was the common highway. Then 
said Dehuti-necht: “Look out, peasant, do not trample on my clothes!”” The 
peasant answered: “‘T will do as thou wishest; I will go in the right way!” Ashe 
was turning to the upper side, Dehuti-necht said: ‘“Does my corn serve you as a 
road?” ‘Then said the peasant: “I am going in the right way. The bank is 
steep and the path lies near the corn and you have stopped up the road ahead 
with your clothes. Will you, then, not let me go by?” 

Upon that one of the asses took a mouthful of corn. Then said Dehuti-necht: 
“See, I will take away thy ass because it has eaten my corn.......... ss 

Then the peasant said: ‘‘I am going in the right way. As one side was made 
impassable I have led my ass along the other, and will you seize it because it has 
taken a mouthful of corm? But I know the lord of this property; it belongs to 
the chief steward, Meruitensi. It is he who punishes every robber in this whole 
land. Shall I, then, be robbed in his domain?” 

Then said Dehuti-necht: “Is it not a proverb which the people employ: ‘The 
name of the poor is only known on account of his lord?’ It is I who speak to you, 
but the chief steward of whom you think.’*® Then he took a rod from a green 
tamarisk and beat all his limbs with it, and seized his asses and drove them into 
his compound. 

Thereupon the peasant wept loudly on account of the pain of what had been 
done to him. Dehuti-necht said to him: “Don’t cry so loud, peasant, or thou 
shalt go to the city of the Silence-maker” (a name of the god of the underworld). 
The peasant said: ‘Thou beatest me and stealest my goods, and wilt thou also 
take the wail away from my mouth? O Silence-maker! give me my goods 
again! May I never cease to cry out, if thou fearest!” 

The peasant consumed four days, during which he besought Dehuti-necht, but 
he did not grant him his rights. Then this peasant went to the south, to Ehnas, 

1 Translated from the German of Vogelsang und Gardiner, Klagen des Bauern, Leipzig, 1908. 

2 The original contains a list of plants, stones, birds, etc., the modern equivalents of which are 


not known. ue 
3 See Gardiner in Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology, XXXV, 269. 


484 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


to implore the chief steward, Meruitensi. He met him as he was coming out of 
the canal-door of his compound to embark in his boat. Thereupon the peasant 
said: “Oh let me lay before thee this affair. Permit one of thy trusted servants 
to come to me, that I may send him to thee concerning it.” Then the steward, 
Meruitensi, sent one of his servants to him, and he sent back by him an account 
of the whole affair. Then the chief steward, Meruitensi, laid the case of Dehuti- 
necht before his attendant officials, and they said to him: “Lord, it is presumably 
a case of one of your peasants who has gone against another peasant near him. 
Behold, it is customary with peasants to so conduct themselves toward others 
who are near them. Shall we beat Dehuti-necht for a little natron and a little 
salt? Command him to restore it and he will restore it.” 

The chief steward, Meruitensi, remained silent; he answered neither the 
officials nor the peasant. The peasant then came to entreat the chief steward, 
Meruitensi, for the first time, and said: 

“Chief steward, my lord, thou art greatest of the great, thou art guide of all 
that which is not and which is. When thou embarkest on the sea of truth, that 
thou mayest go sailing upon it, then shall not the.......... strip away thy sail, 
then thy ship shall not remain fast, then shall no misfortune happen to thy mast, 
then shall thy spars (?) not be broken, then shalt thou not be stranded; if thou 
runnest fast aground, the waves shall not break upon thee, then thou shalt not 
taste the impurities of the river, then thou shalt not behold the face of fear; the 
shyest (?) fish shall come to thee, and thou shalt capture the fat birds. For’ 
thou art the father of the orphan, the husband of the widow, the brother of the 
desolate, the garment of the motherless. Let me place thy name in this land 
higher than all good laws: thou guide without avarice, thou great one free from 
meanness, who destroyest deceit, who createst truthfulness. Throw the evil to 
the ground. I will speak; hear me. Do justice, O thou praised one, whom the 
praised ones praise. Remove my oppression: behold, I have a heavy....... to 
carry; behold, I am troubled of soul; examine me, I am in sorrow.” 


The reference in this address to the orphan and the widow 
touches a chord which runs through much of the Old Testament and 
is especially prominent in the prophets, as the following references 
will indicate: Isa. 1:17, 23; 9:17; 10:2; 47 23; fer fees 
18:21; 22:3; 49:11; Ezek. 22:7, 25; Zech. 7 s10,s Meare 
Deut. 10 : 18; 14 : 29; Job 29 : 13, and Psa. 68 : 5. 

In the Egyptian story Meruitensi was so pleased with the elo- 
quence of the peasant that he passed him on to another officer and 
he to still another until he came before the king. Altogether the 
peasant made nine addresses. For lack of space we can reproduce 
but one more. For this purpose we select his eighth address. 


This peasant came to implore him for the eighth time, and said: 

“Chief steward, my lord, man falls on account of...... Greed is absent from a 
good merchant. His good commerce is........ 

“Thy heart is greedy; it does not become thee. Thou despoilest: this is not 
praiseworthy for thee...... Thy daily rations are in thy house; thy body is well 
filled: vcs 5 The officers, who are set as a protection against injustice,—a curse to 
the shameless are these officers, who are set as a bulwark against lies. 

“Fear of thee has not deterred me from supplicating thee; (if thou thinkest so), 
thou hast not known my heart. The silent one, who turns to report to thee his 


ILLUSTRATIONS OF PASSAGES IN THE PROPHETS 485 


country; thy bread is on thy estate; thy food is in the storehouse. Thy officials 
give to thee and thou takest it. Art thou, then, not a robber? They drag for 
thee, 22. 5 for thee to the plots of arable land. Do the truth for the sake of the 
lord of truth....... Thou reed of a scribe, thou roll of a book, thou palette, thou 
god Thoth, thou oughtest to keep thyself far removed from injustice. Thou 
virtuous one, thou shouldst be virtuous; thou virtuous one, thou shouldst be 
really virtuous. Further, truth is true to eternity. She goes with those who 
perform her to the region of the dead. He will be laid in the coffin and com- 
mitted to the earth; his name will not perish from the earth, but men will re- 
member him on account of his property: so runs the right interpretation of the 
divine word. 

“Does it then happen that the scales stand aslant? Or is it thinkable that 
the scales incline to one side? 

“Behold, if I come not, if another comes, then thou hast opportunity to speak 
as one who answers, as one who addresses the silent, as one who responds to 
him who has not spoken to thee. Thou hast not been...... ; thou hast not been 
sick. Thou hast not fled; thou hast not departed. But thou hast not yet 
granted me any reply to this beautiful word which comes from the mouth of the 
sun-god himself: ‘Speak the truth; do the truth: for it is great, it is mighty, it is 
everlasting. It will obtain for thee merit, and will lead thee to veneration.’ 

“For does the scale stand aslant? It is their scale-pans that bear the objects, 
and in just scales there isno...... wanting.” 


The beauty of the sentiments about truth is obvious. The 
references to scales are to those that were supposed to weigh the 
deeds of the dead in the under-world. 

After a ninth speech on the part of the peasant, the tale con- 
cludes as follows: 


Then the chief steward, Meruitensi, sent two servants to bring him back. 
Thereupon the peasant feared that he would suffer thirst, as a punishment 
imposed upon him for what he had said. Then the peasant said...... (The 
Egyptian of this address contains difficulties which have never been solved.) 

Then said the chief steward, Meruitensi: “Fear not, peasant! See, thou shalt 
remain with me.” ‘Then said the peasant: “I live because I eat of thy bread and 
drink thy beer forever.” 

Then said the chief steward, Meruitensi: “(Come out here........ ” Then 


office, and his possessions were six persons, with a selection from his...... , from 


From this point on only a few words of the tale can be made out, 
but it appears from these that the goods selected from the estate of 
Dehuti-necht were given to the peasant and he was sent home 
rejoicing. 


486 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


4. An Ideal King. 

In the wisdom literature of Egypt appear the admonitions of an 
Egyptian sage called Ipuwer. In these admonitions a time of dire 
distress is pictured, in view of which the sage longs for the presence 
of an ideal king. Some scholars have compared the description of 
this ideal king with the prophetic conception of the Messiah. 

It is unnecessary to quote the whole work, which is fragmentary 
and difficult of translation. A few passages will answer our 


purpose. 
From the Admonitions of Ipuwer! 


OPCs The washerman refuses to carry his load..........The bird-catch- 
ers have drawn up in line of battle.......... The inhabitants of the Marshes 
carry shields. The brewers.......... sad. A man looks upon his son as his 


enemys CLS ean 
Noble ladies suffer like slave gitls. ‘Musicians are in the chambers within the 
halls. What they sing to the goddess Mert is dirges........... Forsooth, all 


Served. 40 s4.00 7 by reason of mourning. Forsooth, the hot-headed (?) man 


Forsooth, grain has perished on every side. People are stripped of clothes, 
spices (?) and oil. Everybody says there is none. The storehouse is ruined. 
Its keeper is stretched on the ground. It is no happy thing for my heart (?) 
Dy igh re tea Would that I had made my voice heard at that moment, that it 
might save me from the pain in which Iam (?).......... Behold, the powerful 
of the land, the condition of the people is not reported to them. All is ruin! 


Similar descriptions of the disorganized state of society might be 
quoted at much greater length. The passage in which Ipuwer 
mentions the ideal king is as follows: 


. 


Rr ee lack of people.............+-.++---Re; command (?) 
the West to diminish (?).......... by the [gods?]. Behold ye, wherefore does 


1 Taken from A. H. Gardiner’s Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage, Leipzig, 1909, pp. 19 and 39, 
f., pp. 69 and 78. 


ILLUSTRATIONS OF PASSAGES IN THE PROPHETS 487 


he [seek] to fashion [mankind],.......... without distinguishing the timid man 
from him whose nature is violent. He bringeth coolness upon that which is hot. 
It is said: he is the herdsman of mankind. No evil is in his heart. When his 
herds are few, he passes the day to gather them together, their hearts being on 
fire. Would that he had perceived their nature in the first generation of men; 
then would he have repressed evils, he would have stretched forth his arm 
against it, he would have destroyed their seed and their inheritance.......... 
Where is he today? Is he sleeping? Behold, his might is not seen. 


Vogelsang held this to be a picture of a kind of ideal king, com- 
parable in some respects to the prophetic conception of the Messiah 
in such passages as Isa. 9 : 1-6; 11: 1-8. To this view Gardiner 
has objected that the parallelism is not real, in that there seems to 
have been in the mind of the Egyptian sage no expectation that 
such a king would actually rise, but rather the belief that he once 
existed as the god Re and has now vanished from earth. To this 
Breasted and Gressmann reply that the kingly figure is a purely 
ideal one, and that Ipuwer feels strongly that, if he were on earth 
all wrongs would be set right, and that in some degree the picture 
is parallel to the conceptions of the Messiah. 

The description of disorganized society which is here reflected 
is patterned on conditions which existed in Egypt before 2000 B. c., 
and the conception of the ideal king is equally old. 

5. Sheol. 

In Isa. 14 :9-11 and Ezek. 32 : 21-31 we find descriptions of 
Sheol or the under-world. These descriptions are closely parallel 
to the following Babylonian poem. 


Ishtar’s Descent to the Under-world! 


Unto the land of No-return, the land of darkness, 
Ishtar, the daughter of Sin, determined to go, 
The daughter of Sin determined to go, 
Unto the house of darkness, the dwelling of Irkalla, 
5. Unto the house whose enterer never comes out, 

Along the way whose going has no return, 
Unto the house whose enterer is deprived of light, 
Where dust is their food, their sustenance, clay, 
Light they do not see, in darkness they dwell; 

10. They are clothed, like birds, with a covering of wings. 
Over door and bolt the dust is spread. 
Ishtar, when she arrived at the gate of the land of No-return 
To the keeper of the gate addressed a word: 
“Keeper of the waters, open thy gate! 

15. Open thy gate! Let me enter! 
If thou dost not open thy gate, that I may enter, 
I will shatter the door, I will break the bolt, 


1 Translated from Rawlinson’s Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, Vol. IV, p. 31. 


488 


20. 


pay 


30. 


So: 


45. 


50. 


Oo 


ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


I will shiver the threshold, break down the doors; 

I will bring up the dead to devour the living!” 

The keeper opened his mouth and spake, 

He said to Ishtar, the great: 

“Stay, my lady, do not destroy it, 

Let me go, let me announce thy name to Queen Allat.” 
The keeper went in, he spake [to Allat]: 

“This water thy sister, Ishtar, [has crossed] 

As a servant of great powers [she comes].” 

When Allat heard this, 

Like the cutting of the tamarisk [was her laugh], 

Like the crackling of reeds. [She cried]: 

“What has turned her mind to me?.......... 

These waters I with.......... 

For food I will eat clay, for drink I will drink.......... 
I will weep for men who have abandoned their wives, 

I will weep for maidens torn from their husbands’ bosoms, 
T will weep for children snatched away before their time. 
Go, keeper, open thy gate to her; 

Do to her according to the ancient custom.” 

The keeper went and opened to her his gate: 


. “Enter, my lady; the under-world is glad, 


The palace of the land of No-return rejoices at thy coming.” 

He brought her through the first gate, made it wide, he took the great 
crown from her head. 

“Why, O keeper, hast thou taken the great crown from my head?” 

“Enter, my lady, such are the commands of Allat.”’ 

He brought her through the second gate, he made it wide, he took the 
ornaments from her ears. 

“Why, O keeper, hast thou taken the ornaments from my ears?” 

“Enter, my lady, for such are the commands of Allat.” 

He brought her through the third gate, he made it wide, he took the 
necklace from her neck. 

“Why, O keeper, hast thou taken the necklace from my neck?” 

“Enter, O lady, for such are the commands of Allat.” 

He brought her through the fourth gate, he made it wide, he took the 
ornaments from her breasts. 

“Why, O keeper, hast thou taken the ornaments from my breast?” 

“Enter, my lady, for such are the commands of Allat.”’ 

He brought her through the fifth gate, he made it wide, he took the 
girdle with birth-stones from her waist. 

“Why, O keeper, hast thou taken the girdle with birth-stones from my 
waist?” 

“Enter, my lady, for such are the commands of Allat.” 

He brought her through the sixth gate, he made it wide, he took the 
bracelets from her hands and feet. 

“Why, O keeper, hast thou taken the bracelets from my hands and 
feet?” 

“Enter, my lady, for such are the commands of Allat.” 


. He brought her through the seventh gate, he made it wide, he took the 


breech-cloth from her body. 
“Why, O keeper, hast thou taken the breech-cloth from my body?” 
“Enter, my lady, for such are the commands of Allat.” 
When Ishtar had gone down to the Jand of No-return, 
Allat saw her and became enraged at her. 


ILLUSTRATIONS OF PASSAGES IN THE PROPHETS 489 


65. Ishtar took no heed; she sat down above her. 


70. 


ik R 


80. 


85. 


90. 


95, 


100. 


105. 


110. 


1th: 


Allat opened her mouth and spake, 

To Namtar, her messenger, she addressed a word: 

“Go, Namtar, lock [her in my palace], 

Bring out against her sixty diseases.......... Ishtar, 

Disease of the eyes against her [eyes], 

Disease of the side against her [sides], 

Disease of the feet against her [feet], 

Disease of the heart against [her heart], 

Disease of the head against [her head], 

Against her altogether.......... zh 

After Ishtar, the lady, [went down to the land of No-return] 

The bull with the cow did not unite, nor the ass approach the she-ass; 

The man in the street no more approached the maid; 

The man slept in his chamber, 

The maid slept by her oven. 

Papsukal, messenger of the great gods, was sad of countenance before 
[Shamash], 

Clad in mourning, wearing foul garments. 

Then went Shamash into the presence of Sin, his father; he wept, 

Before Ea, the king, his tears flowed: 

“Ishtar has gone down into the earth; she has not come up. 

Since Ishtar went down to the land of No-return, 

The bull with the cow does not unite, nor the ass approach the she- 
ass; 

The man no more approaches the maid in the street; 

The man sleeps in his chamber, 

The maid sleeps by her oven. 

Then Ea in the wisdom of his heart created a man, 

He created Asushunamir, the priest. 

“Go, Asushunamir, to the gate of the land without return set thy face, 

The seven gates of the land without return shall be opened before thee, 

Allat shall behold thee, and shall rejoice in thy presence. 

When her heart has been appeased, and her soul revived, 

Conjure her also by the name of the great gods. 

Turn thy thoughts to the skin which pours forth life: 

‘O lady, give me the skin which pours forth life, that I may drink water 
from it.’”’ 

When Allat heard this, 

She beat upon her thigh, she bit her finger: 

“Thou hast uttered a wish not to be wished. 

Go, Asushunamir; I curse thee with a great curse. 

The sewage of the gutters of the city shall be thy food, 

The cesspools of the city shall be thy drink, 

The shadow of the walls shall be thy dwelling, 

The thresholds shall be thy habitation, 

Confinement and privation shall shatter thy strength.” 

Allat opened her mouth and spoke, 

To Namtar, her messenger, she addressed the word: 

“Go, Namtar, knock at the palace of justice, 

Tap at the thresholds of gleaming (?) stones, 

Bring out the Annunaki,! seat them on golden thrones, 

Sprinkle Ishtar with the water of life and bring her before me. 

Namtar went, he knocked at the palace of justice, 


1 The spirits of earth. 


” 


490 ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


He tapped at the thresholds of gleaming (?) stones, 
He brought forth the Annunaki, he seated them on golden thrones, 
He sprinkled Ishtar with the water of life, he brought her forth. 
He brought her out of the first gate, he restored to her the breech-cloth 
of her body; 
120. He brought her through the second gate, he restored to her the bracelets 
of her hands and feet; 
He brought her through the third gate, he restored to her the girdle with 
birth-stones for her waist; 
He brought her through the fourth gate, he restored to her the ornaments 
of her breasts; 
He brought her through the fifth gate, he restored to her the necklace 
of her neck; 
He brought her through the sixth gate, he restored to her the ornaments 
of her ears; 
125. He brought her through the seventh gate, he restored to her the crown 
of her head. 
(End of legend. The priest begins:) 
“Tf she does not grant to thee her release, turn to her again; 
To Tammuz, the beloved of her youth, 
Pour out water, offer good oil, 
With red clothing clothe him, let him play a flute of lapis lazuli. 
130. Let the joyful maidens tutn,:.>)- ¢. 330 eee 
When Belili has established her ritual, 
With precious stones her bosom is filled.” 
The wailing for her brother she heard; Belili interrupted the ritual of.... 
With precious stones she filled the front of.......... 
(Voice from the dead.) 
135. ‘My only brother, harm me not; 
On the day of Tammuz, play for me the lapis lazuli flute, play the Santu- 
flute with it, 
When the wailing men and women play with it, 
Let the dead return, let them smell incense.” 


The description of the darkness of the under-world and the sad 
conditions of life with which this poem begins, shows that the Baby- 
lonians shared the gloomy views of Sheol which Isa. 14 : 9-11 and 
Ezek. 32 : 21-31 express. 

The middle of the poem expresses the view of the ancient Semites, 
that the goddess of love once went down to the under-world, and 
that as a result all propagation of life ceased on the earth. The 
end of it alludes to the later belief that the goddess went down every 
year for her beloved Tammuz who had died, and the wailing alluded 
to is that spoken of by Ezekiel in Ezek. 8 : 14, where the prophet 
says he saw women wailing for Tammuz. The kind of sentiment 
uttered in this wailing the next extract will illustrate. 

6. A Lamentation for Tammuz.! 

1 Translated from Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets, &c., in the British Museum, Part 


ILLUSTRATIONS OF PASSAGES IN THE PROPHETS 491 


2 


LS. 


20. 


vA 


30. 


35. 


40. 


The lord of destiny (?) lives no more, the lord of destiny (?) lives no more. 
(Tammuz the...... ] lives no more,...... lives no more. 

The bewailed one (?) lives no more, the lord of destiny (?) lives no more. 
I am queen, my husband lives no more. 


. My son lives no more. 


Dagalushumgalanna lives no more. 

The lord of Arallu lives no more. 

The lord of Durgurgurru lives no more. 

The shepherd, the lord Tammuz lives no more. 

The lord, the shepherd of the folds lives no more. 

The consort of the queen of heaven lives no more. 

The lord of the folds lives no more. 

The brother of the mother of wine lives no more. 

[He who creates] the fruit of the land lives no more. 

The powerful lord of the land lives no more. 

When he slumbers the sheep and lambs slumber also. 

When he slumbers the goats and kids slumber also. 

As for me, to the abode of the deep will I turn my thoughts, 

To the abode of the great ones I turn my thoughts. 

“O hero, my lord, ah me,” I will say, 

“Food I eat not,” I will say, 

“Water I drink not,” I will say, 

“My good maiden,” I will say, 

“My good husbandman,” I will say, 

“Thy lord, the exalted one, to the nether world has taken his way, 

Thy lord, the exalted one, to the nether world has taken his way.” 

On account of the exalted one of the nether world, him of the radiant face, 
yea, radiant, 

On account of the exalted one of the nether world, him of the dovelike 
voice, yea, dovelike, 

On account of the exalted one, the lord, on account of the lord, 

Food I eat not on account of the lord, 

Water I drink not, on account of the lord. 

“My good maiden, because of the lord, 

My good husbandman, on account of the lord, 

The hero, your lord has been destroyed, 

The god of grain, the child, your lord, has been destroyed.” 

His kindly look gives peace no more, 

His kindly voice imparts cheer (?) no more; 

So tae in his place, like a dog he sleeps; 

OCG hs Bog) a slumbers like a raven 

Alone is he, himself, 

My lord, for whom the wail is raised. 


(Forty-one lines—a psalm on the flute to Tammuz.) 


This poem illustrates what Ezekiel may have heard in vision, 
when in spirit he was brought to the northern gate of the temple, and 
heard women wailing for Tammuz (Ezek. 8 : 14). 

7. The Fall of Nineveh. 

The prophet Nahum in the second and third chapters of his book 
vividly predicted the siege, overthrow, and devastation of Nineveh. 


492 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


A text recently found among the tablets in the British Museum 
tells in detail how the prophecy approached fulfilment. A trans- 
lation of it follows:! 


In the 10th year Nabopolassar, in the month Airu (April-May), mustered 
the army of Akkad and marched along the bank of the Euphrates. The 
Sukhaites and Khindanites did not offer battle, but laid their. tribute before 
him. In the month Ab (July-August) they reported that the Assyrian army 
was in the city Qablinu and Nabopolassar went up against them. _ On the 12th 
day of the month Ab the Assyrian army offered battle; the Assyrian army was 
put to flight before him and the humiliation of Assyria was effectually accom- 
plished. They took much booty and captured the Manneans who had come 
to their aid and also the princes of Assyria. On that day the city Qablinu was 
captured. During Ab the King of Akkad sent his army against Mane, Sakhiru, 
and Balikhu; they took plunder, collected abundant spoil, and carried off their 
gods. In the month Ulul (August-September) the King of Akkad and his 
army turned back and on his route was the city of Khindanu; its gods he took 
to Babylon. In the month Tashritu (September—October) the Egyptian army 
and the Assyrian army marched after the King of Akkad as far as the city 
Qablinu; they did not overtake the King of Akkad. He hastened after them. 
In the month Adar (F ebruary—March) the Assyrian army and the Akkadian 
army joined battle in the city Madana belonging to the city of Arapkhu. The 
Assyrian army fled before the Akkadian army; they seriously defeated them 
and threw them back to the river Zab. They seized their asses and horses and 
took much booty. His........ they brought with them across the Tigris 


In the year 11 the King of Akkad mustered his army and marched along the 
bank of the river Euphrates and in the month Airu encamped in the heart of 
the country Assyria. On the...... day of the month Simanu (May-June) 
he made an attack on the midst of a city, but did not capture the city. The 
King of Assyria mustered his army and the King of Akkad was expelled from the 
territory of Assyria and the King of Assyria and his army pursued him as 
far along the shore of the Tigris as the city Takritain. The King of Akkad 
brought his army up into the fortress of Takritain. The King of Assyria and 
his army encamped against the army of the King of Akkad which was shut 
up in Takritain and for ten days fought against them; they did not capture 
the city. The army of the King of Akkad, which was shut up in the fortress, 
defeated Assyria badly. The King of Assyria and his army?) ae and 
returned to his country. In the eighth month (November-December) the 
Mede came down unto Arapkhu and fought against the city............ 

In the 12th year in the month Ab the Mede (went) against the city of Nineveh 


BS ace tae shee eee and hastened and captured Tabriz, a city of the district 
of Nineveh. ........, He marched down the shore of the Tigris and encamped 
against the city of Ashur and fought against Ashur.......... The city he 


destroyed and accomplished cruelly the destruction of the principal people; 
he seized their plunder and took their booty. The King of Akkad and his 
army, who had gone to the help of the Mede, did not arrive for the battle. 
LDE Clty sek mene The King of Akkad and Cyaxares met one another near 
the city and made a covenant of friendship and amity.......... Cyaxares and 
his army returned to their country; the King of Akkad and his army returned 
to their country. 

In the 13th year, in the month Airu, the Sukhean rebelled against the King 


1 Translated from the Assyrian text published by C. J. Gadd, in The Fail of Nineveh, London, 
1923. 


ILLUSTRATIONS OF PASSAGES IN THE PROPHETS 493 


of Akkad and committed hostilities. The King of Akkad mustered his army 
and marched against Sukhi. In the month Siman, on the 4th day, he made 
an assault upon the city of Rakhilu, a city which is in the midst of the Euphrates; 
on that day he captured the city. Its........ he built, stones from the bank 
of the Euphrates he laid down before it.......... against the city Anati he 


ee eee eee see 


Pon Sik Aa ee and they beheld one another. The King of Akkad 
eS od MGV CN ER Clq oP olka Lie ee a SY 


SU eeceCrt tesa thceeceoeseececeevasceenevee s 


see ee ee eee eee ee eee 


Oo og en (the King of Akkad remained) in Nineveh...... 
From the 20th day of the month............ theking oP 2733. . the month 
i 

In the 15th year in the month Tammuz (June-July)........ the King of 

(0 a a MSTCHEd tO. ASSVTIA. ei hance 
victoriously............ tue niniy-or the country Khazz) oi). .i4 vel. <i as 
angr: the country............ captured, they seized their plunder and took 
a In the eighth month the King of 
Akkad turned the front of his army against the city Ruguliti............ he 
made an attack against it and on the 28th day of the eighth month the city 
was captured........ not a man (escaped)....... He returned to his country. 


In the 16th year in the month Airu the King of Akkad mustered his army 
and marched against Assyria. From Airu unto the eighth month he marched 
victoriously in Assyria. In the eighth month the country of the Scythians (?) 
Gees we Gk came to the help of the King of Akkad and their armies they 
united and marched to Harran against Ashuruballit who had occupied the 


throne in Assyria. Ashuruballit and the army of............ which had 
come to his help—the fear of the enemy fell upon them, they left the city and 
Re ee a es The King of Akkad reached Harran and the 
iy apne re was captured. The plunder of the city they took in 
quantity beyond computation. In the month of Adar the King of Akkad 
SS, OG Se Sana left their............and returned to his country. Also 


the Scythians (?) who had come to his aid.................... 

In the month Tammuz the Assyrian king (secured) a very great Egyptian 
J ee eee He crossed the river and marched to capture Harran. 
The garrison which the King of Akkad had sent to its midst they cast down 
and killed. He encamped against Harran; until Ulul he made attacks upon 
Harran but (accomplished) nothing; he did not capture it. The King of Akkad 


494. ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


came to the help of his army and joined battle................ He went up 
to Izalla. Many cities of their country. /..' 0-4)... 2. sue ee their 
stele Sade atta de he burned with fire. At that time the army.................. 
as far as the district of the city Urashtu.......... in the: country). 2aeoe ee 
thele thy Posen they plundered. The garrison of the king.................. 
they and to the city... 002i aoe the King of Akkad returned to his land. 

In the 18th year in the month........ the King of Akkad mustered his army. 


At this point this interesting text ends. Indeed the last line was 
written as a catch line to enable the reader to identify the next 
tablet. We should much like to know what happened in the 18th 
year, but for that we must await the discovery of the next tablet. 

As we read this story of the marching and counter-marching of 
armies across Assyria, we can imagine what the country suffered, 
even as the prophet Nahum had predicted. While the actual over- 
throw of the Assyrian power is not told, perhaps because the tablet 
is broken at the end, but, more probably, because the story was 
continued on the next tablet, we see that kingdom tottering to its 
fall. A number of details are also told of which we did not before 
know. We learn that in the year 615 the king of Egypt, Psammetik 
I, was still faithful to Assyria and was fighting as her ally. We had 
previously supposed that he had broken with that country nearly 
thirty years before. We also learn that the king of Babylon de- 
stroyed the city of Ashur, the old capital of Assyria in 611 B.c., 
and drove in that same year the king of Assyria from Nineveh, 
occupying it himself. That a king of Assyria then set up his throne 
in Harran, an old home of Abraham, from which the Assyrian was 
driven and which he endeavored to capture two years later by 
means of an Egyptian army, is also a fact that we did not previously 
know. That the Medes and a people called Unnan-manda—prob- 
ably Scythians from southern Russia—aided the overthrow of 
Assyria, had been suspected, but is now confirmed. Just how 
Nineveh was finally destroyed we do not yet know, but we learn 


from Xenophon’s Anabasis that, when he passed its site in the year 


400 B. c., it had so completely perished that he did not hear its 
name. 


= > 
> a 


¢ @ 


CHAPTER XXVII 
A BABYLONIAN BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS! 


Tae TEext AND Its OccasION. COMPARISON WITH THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH. 


In the year 2864 B. c. the city of Lagash, which had then been a 
flourishing power for from three to four hundred years, was over- 
thrown, sacked, and burned by Lugalzaggisi, king of the neighbor- 
ing city of Umma. There had been war between Umma and Lagash 
frequently for five hundred years and Lagash had often been tri- 
umphant. Much hatred had accumulated in the hearts of the men 
of Umma and they evidently freely avenged themselves when 
Lagash fell into their power. How their deeds affected one sad 
heart of that far-off time this text makes clear. 


The men of Umma 

The Eki?...... 

With fire have destroyed; 

The Antasurra? 

With fire have destroyed. 

Its silver and lapis lazuli 
. They have plundered. 

In the Temple of Tirash 

They have shed blood; 

In the little sea’ 

They have shed blood; 

In the sanctuary of Enlil 

And the sanctuary of Utu 

They have shed blood; 

In the Akhush? 

They have shed blood; 

Its silver and lapis lazuli 

They have plundered; 

In Ebarbar? 

They have shed blood; 

Its gold and lapis lazuli 

They have plundered; 

In Gikana 

Of the goddess Ninmakh,! 

The sacred grove, 

They have shed blood; 

Its silver and lapis lazuli 

They have plundered; 

In Baga? 

They have shed blood; 


The storehouse 

They have burned with fire; 

Its silver and lapis lazuli 

They have plundered; 

In the ruined reservoir 

They have shed blood. 

The Temple of Gatumdug* 

They have burned with fire; 

Its silver and lapis lazuli 

They have plundered; 

Her image 

They have destroyed. 

The shrine of Eanna? of Ininni4 

They have burned with fire; 

Its silver and lapis lazuli 

They have plundered; 

Her image they have destroyed; 

In the ‘House-of-the-Understanding- 
Heart’? 

They have shed blood; 

Its silver and lapis lazuli 

They have plundered. 

In Khienda? 

They have smashed its carved cedar. 

In Kiab,? 

The dwelling of Nindar,! 

They have shed blood; 

Its silver and lapis lazuli 

They have plundered. 


1 Translated from the Sumerian text published by Thureau-Dangin in Cros, Nouvelles Fouilles 


de Telloh, 1910, p. 47. 
2 The name of a temple. 


8 The name of a structure corresponding to the “brazen sea’”’ of Solomon’s Temple. 


4 The name of a goddess, 


495 


496 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Kinunir, They have taken the grain. 
The dwelling of Tammuz of the abyss, ; 

They burned with fire; The men of Umma, 

Its silver and lapis lazuli After Lagash 

They have plundered. , They had destroyed, 
The temple of Lugal-Erim Mortal sin 

They have burned with fire; Against Ningirsu 

Its silver and lapis lazuli Committed. 

They have plundered. The power which has come to them 
In E-engur,! Shall be cut off. 
Belonging to Nina,? Mortal sin 

They have shed blood; On the part of Urkagina, 
Its silver and lapis lazuli King of 

They have plundered. Girsu,* 

In Sag!...... There was none. 

Temple of “The Mother of the Vine,’”? Lugalzaggisi, _ 

They have shed blood; Priest-king 

Her silver and lapis lazuli Of Umma,— 

They have plundered. May his goddess, 

From Engurbanishub, Nisaba,? 

The field of Ningirsu,’ His mortal sin 

The lord of husbandmen, Bear on her head! 


This text, like the Lamentations of Jeremiah, recites in detail 
the violent and sacrilegious acts of those who destroyed the city 
where its author lived. While it lacks the finished poetical form 
of the Biblical Lamentations, it must be remembered that it was 
written considerably more than two thousand years before that 
work. Its author does not, like the Biblical writer, tell how his 
affections have been outraged and how he weeps for the destroyed 
city, and yet it is not difficult to detect the passionate personal 
feeling running through his catalogue. One can feel his horror, his 
sorrow, and his heart-breaking sadness as he tells how temple after 
temple has been defiled with human blood, its treasury robbed, its 
beautiful work defaced, and its structure burned up. His horror 
was the same, though his artistic power was less than that of the 
Biblical poets who wrote threnodies on the destruction of Jeru- 
salem, 

Running through this old Babylonian text there is a certainty 
that the men who committed the deeds recorded have committed 
a grave sin, and at the end the writer expresses the belief that they 


1 The name of a temple. 

2 Name of a goddess. 

3 Name of a god. 

‘The name of a part of Lagash, which, like greater New York, was formed by joining four 
Cities together. 


A BABYLONIAN BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS 497 


and their goddess who prompted it will pay the penalty. He has 
faith that justice will be exacted—yes: that vengeance will be 
executed, but no such sense of moral shortcoming as one finds in 
the Book of Lamentations, no such tender penitence, no such 
supplication for forgiveness. 


CHAPTER XXVIII 


REPUTED SAYINGS OF JESUS FOUND IN EGYPT 


EARLY COLLECTIONS OF THE WoRDS OF JESUS. TRANSLATION OF SAYINGS FOUND 
In 1897. CoMMENTS. TRANSLATION OF A LEAF Founp In 1904. Comments. OPIN- 
IONS AS TO THESE SAYINGS. 


Tue Gospel of Luke begins with the words: “ Forasmuch as many 
have taken in hand to draw up a narrative concerning those matters 
which have been fulfilled among us,””—words which imply that there 
were in the early Church many attempts at Gospel writing. Some 
of these attempts apparently took the form of collecting the sayings 
of Jesus. At Oxyrhynchus in Egypt two different leaves of papyrus 
have been found on which such sayings are written. The first of 
these was found by Grenfell and Hunt in 1897; (Fig. 301). It 


begins in the middle of a sentence, but it is a sentence the begin- | a 


ning of which can be supplied from Matt. 7:5. When complete 
the sentence runs thus:' 


[Jesus saith, Cast out first the beam from thine own eye], and 


then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote that is in thy broth- — : : 


er’s eye. 


On this saying compare Matt. 7 : 5; Luke 6 : 42. 
The second one runs: 


Jesus saith, Except ye fast to the world, ye shall in no wise find a 
the kingdom of God; and except ye keep the sabbath, ye shallnot 
see the Father. as 


This saying does not occur in the Gospels, and has given rise to : ; 
wide discussion among scholars. ; ; 
The third is as follows: 


1 These sayings are translated from Grenfell and Hunt’s Sayings of Our Lord, 1897, with a com- ee 
parison of Lock and Sanday’s Two Lectures on the Sayings of Jesus Recently Discovered at Oxyrhgn- — 
chus, 1897. a 


498 


REPUTED SAYINGS OF JESUS FOUND IN EGYPT 499 


Jesus saith, I stood in the midst of the world, and in the flesh 
was I seen of them, and I found all men drunken, and none found 
I athirst among them, and my soul grieveth over the sons of men, 
because they are blind in their heart [and see not], poor, and know 
not their poverty. 


This saying also is not found in the Gospels. It is difficult to 
tell whether it was thought to have been spoken by Jesus before or 
after the resurrection. 

The fourth saying is difficult of translation and interpretation, 
since the text is not at all clear. As emended by Harnack and 
Swete, it would run: 


Jesus saith, Wherever there are two they are not without God, 
and if one is alone anywhere, I say I am with him. Raise the 
stone, there thou shalt find me; cleave the wood, and there I am. 


This saying has given rise to much discussion and to a large 
literature, but reference can here be made only to Henry van 
Dyke’s poem Felix. With the last part of the saying Matt. 18 : 20 
should be compared. 

The fifth saying is as follows: 


Jesus saith, A prophet is not acceptable in his own country, 
neither doth a physician work cures upon them that know him. 


The first part of this is akin to Luke 4: 24; Mark 6:4; Matt. 
13:57, and John 4:44. The last part of it is not in the Gospels. 
The sixth one reads: 


Jesus saith, A city built on the top of a high hill and firmly 
established can neither fall nor be hid. 


In this saying the thought of Matt. 5 : 14 is combined with that of 
Matt. 7 : 24, 25, but there is no necessary literary dependence upon 
Matthew. 

The seventh and last saying on this leaf is: 


[Jesus saith,] Thou hearest with one ear, but the other thou 
hast closed. 


500 ARCHASOLOGY AND THE BIBLE] 


This, too, is not found in our Gospels. 
In 1904 another leaf of sayings of Jesus was found at the same 
place. It begins with a general introduction, thus:! 


These are the [wonderful?]? words which Jesus the living Lord 
spake [to the disciples] and to Thomas, and he said to them: 
Every one that hearkens to these words shall never taste of death. 


These words formed the general introduction to a collection of 
sayings of Jesus, similar to that from which the sayings already 
quoted were taken. The leaf also contained a few of the sayings 
which stood in the collection. They are as follows: 


Jesus saith, Let not him who seeks...... cease until he finds, 
and when he finds he shall be astonished; astonished he shall 
reach the kingdom, and having reached the kingdom he shall rest. 


The Gospels contain parallels to parts of this saying. (See Matt. 
6 23357272 15 Aas ike he, 
The second of these sayings is longer: 


Jesus saith, [Ye ask (?) who are those] that draw us [to the king- 
dom, if] the kingdom is in heaven?...... the fowls of the air, and 
all the beasts that are under the earth or upon the earth, and the 
fishes of the sea, [these are they which draw] you, and the kingdom 
of heaven is within you; and whosoever shall know himself shall 
find it. [Strive therefore (?)] to know yourselves, and ye shall be 
aware that ye are the sons of the [Almighty (?)] Father; [and (?)] 
ye shall know that ye are in [the city of God (?)] and ye are [the 


city (?)]. 


The first part of this saying’ attributes to Christ a saying evi- 
dently based on the thought of Job 12:7, 8. Other parts of the 
saying recall Luke 17:21 and Luke 20 : 36, though the phrases 
which remind us of these passages form but a small part of the say- 
ing and appear here in quite a different connection. 

The third saying runs: 


1 Translated from Grenfell and Hunt’s New Sayings of Jesus and Fragment of a Lost Gospel from 
Oxyrhynchus, 1904. 
2 Compare John 21 : 24, 25. 


REPUTED SAYINGS OF JESUS FOUND IN EGYPT 501 


Jesus saith, A man shall not hesitate...... Washi concern- 
ing his place [in the kingdom. Ye shall know] that many that are 
first shall be last and the last first and [they shall have eternal 
life (?)]. 


A part of this saying follows Mark 10:31 and Matt. 19 : 30; 
cf. also Luke 13:30. The last clause is conjectural, but, if cor- 
rect, is similar to John 3 : 16, 36; 5 : 24. 

The fourth: 


Jesus saith, Everything that is not before thy face and that which 
is hidden from thee shall be revealed to thee. For there is nothing 
hidden which shall not be made manifest, nor buried which shall 
not be raised. 


The last part of this saying is parallel to Matt. 10: 26; Luke 
12 : 2; see also Mark 4 : 22. 


The fifth: 

His disciples question him and say, How shall we fast and how 
shall we [pray (?)]...... and what [commandment] shall we keep? 
oe ie Jesus saith,......do not......of truth......blessed is 
Beets. 


The papyrus is so broken that we cannot hope to recover this 
saying in its entirety, but it is clear that it differed from the others 
in having an introductory clause which gave the occasion when it 
was uttered. 

Judgments have differed as to whether all these sayings are really 
sayings of Jesus. That there were sayings of his known in ancient 
times that are not recorded in our Gospels is shown by Acts 20 : 35. 
Some, at least, of these sayings are so like those of Jesus that it is not 
difficult to believe them his. But whether they are his or not, these 
papyri make clear to us what Luke meant when he said “many 
have taken in hand to draw up a narrative.” 


CHAPTER XXIX 


ARCHAOLOGICAL LIGHT ON THE ENROLMENT OF 
QUIRINIUS 


TRANSLATION OF A PAPYRUS SHOWING THAT IN THE SECOND CENTURY ENROLMENT WAS 
MADE EVERY FOURTEEN YEARS. COMMENTS. TRANSLATION REFERRING TO AN ENROL- 
MENT IN THE REIGN OF NERO. FRAGMENT FROM THE REIGN OF TIBERIUS. ENROLMENTS 
PROBABLY INAUGURATED BY AUGUSTUS. DOCUMENT SHOWING THAT PEOPLE WENT 
TO THEIR OWN TOWNS FOR ENROLMENT. INSCRIPTION SUPPOSED TO REFER TO QUIRIN- 
tus. INSCRIPTION FROM ASIA MINOR REFERRING TO QurIRINIUS. Discussion. Con- 
CLUSIONS. 


ARCHZOLOGICAL research has recently thrown much light upon 
the census of Quirinius mentioned in Luke 2:1-5. The evidence 
has come in part from ancient records on papyri which have been 
dug up in Egypt, some of which are herewith translated. 

The following extract from a large papyrus establishes the fact 
that a census or an assessment-list was made in the Roman empire 
every fourteen years. 

1. Papyrus Showing Enrolment Every Fourteen Years.! 


After the death of my wife Aphrodite, or, as she was called by some, Aphrodi- 
toute, having departed from the district of Herakles and Sabinos, I enrolled the 
other children who dwell with Mysthes who is called Ninnos, who was 33 years 
old, and after the others, the wife of my son Mysthes who is called Ninnos, viz.: 
—Zozime, freed-woman of Ptolemaios Ammoniarios, daughter of Marion 
Geomytha, and was 22 years old, (who was living with her mistress, in the enrol- 
ment of the 9th year; at the time of the enrolment she [Zozime] was living in the 
Greek quarter, but has now moved into the neighboring quarter of Apolloneios 
Hierax) and the children of these two, Ammonios, aged 5, and Didymos, aged 
4,and Aunts 20.94% , were not otherwise enrolled in the enrolment in the first 
year of the Emperor Cesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus and the Em- 
peror Cesar Lucius Aurelius Verus Augustus, on the thirtieth of Payni [7. e., 
June 24, 161 a.p.]._ To Potomon, governor of the Arsinoite district of Herakles, 
and Asclepiades, the royal census-taker, and Agathos Daimon and Dioskoros, 
census-takers of the metropolis, on behalf of Mysthes who is called Ninnos, 
Mysthes, son of Philo, whose mother is Herais, daughter of Ammoniosone, of the 
citizens of the metropolis, who are enrolled from the quarter of Apolloneios 
Hierax: there belongs to me in the district of Ammonios 7s part of the place 
called Nekpherotios, in which I enroll myself and my household for the current 


enrolment of the 14th year according to the household enrolment, as also I en- — 


1 Translated from Viereck’s publication of the text in Philologus, Vol. LII, 234, f. 
502 


3 
; 
; 


SS Se ae Fa 


a 


LIGHT ON THE ENROLMENT OF QUIRINIUS 3503 


This papyrus, dated in the year 175 a.p., is very import- 
ant as it proves that the census came every fourteen years. The 
enrolment mentioned at the end of it was made in connection with 
the census of 174-175 a. D., since the document is dated in August 
of the year 175. The enrolment mentioned about the middle of the 
document was the enrolment of 160-161 a. p. That was dated in 
the summer of 161. The one mentioned near the beginning of the 
quotation as having been made in the 9th year must refer to the 
census of the year 146-147, and the 9th year of Antoninus Pius, 
which was the year 147. The proof that the census was taken every 
fourteen years! is of the greatest importance to our subject, as will 
appear below. 

This enrolment was made by one Mysthes Ninnos on behalf of 
his son, who was also called Mysthes Ninnos, the wife of the son 
who was a freed-woman, called Zozime, and their children, who 
were the grandchildren of the man making the enrolment. Mys- 
thes Ninnos, the grandfather, had been married twice. His first 
wife was named Aphrodite; after her death he married Herais, the 
mother of the son, Mysthes Ninnos. 

2. Translation Referring to an Enrolment in the Reign of Nero.” 


Copy of an enrolment of Ammonios and...... ios, the gymnasiarch and 
librarian of the public library in the city of Arsinoe, in the presence of Pa...... 
MINEOS 4... Paesios, son of Myo, priest of those who are from Karanis of the 
district of Heracles. According to the commands through the most excellent 
governor, Lucius Julius Vestinus, I have enrolled today my goods which are free 
from debt and mortgage and lien; in the neighboring village, a third part of my 
father’s house and courtyard, and places cleared of abodes, two lots of a half 
acre each, which were bought from Mesoereus, son of Nekpherds, in the fifth 
year of Nero Claudius Cesar Augustus Germanicus, Emperor, and a house in 
the village, which was bought from Onnophreus, son of Peteorzpeus, in the sixth 
year of Nero Claudius Cesar Augustus Germanicus, Emperor. Whatever I 
make from these or buy in addition I will first report as it shall occur. 


1 These assessments, then, occurred in the following years: 174-5; 160-1; 146-7; 132-3; 118-9; 
104-5; 90-1; 76-7; 62-3; 48-9; 34-5; 20-1; 6-7; 9-8 B.c. 
2From Hermes, XXVIII, 1893, p. 233. 


504 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


The date of this document, which is only a copy, is not given, but 
as it refers to two transactions in real estate, which were dated 
respectively in the 5th and 6th years of Nero, and as that monarch’s 
reign began in October of the year 54 A. D., it is probable that this 
is a copy of an enrolment made in connection with the census of 62- 
63 A.D. This proves that the system of taking the census once in 
fourteen years was in operation as early as the reign of Nero. 

3. Fragment from the Reign of Tiberius. 


To Eutychides and Theon, local census-takers and village census-takers, from 
Horion and Petosiris, priest of Isis, the most great goddess, of the temple called 
the Two Brothers in the city of Oxyrhynchus on the street Myrobalanos, near 
the Serapeum. Those who live in the house which belongs to me and my wife 
Tasis and to Taurius, son of Harbichis, and to Papontos, son of Nechthesorios, 
and to Thechemere, in the house which is near the aforesaid temple of the Two 
Brothers are as follows: 


The papyrus at this point becomes too mutilated for further 
translation. 

The importance of this document is revealed by an examination 
of the names of the officers, Eutychides and Theon. Another 
papyrus from the same place, which contains a notice of a removal, 
is dated in the 6th year of the Emperor Tiberius.?_ As these officers 
were still in office when this census was taken, this must be the 
census of the year 20-21 A. D. 

4. Enrolments Probably Inaugurated by Augustus. 

Another papyrus contains a list of people who were exempt from 
poll-tax in the 41st year of the reign of Augustus.’ As the poll-tax 
was intimately connected with the census, it is altogether probable 
that the census was inaugurated by Augustus. As he became em- 
peror in 278.c. and at once proceeded to organize his empire, the 
census may have begun early in his reign. If there was one in 20 
A. D. there would be one in 6 A. D., 9-8 B. c., and possibly in 23-22 
B.c. If there was not one in 23-22, that in 9-8 B. c. would be the 
first. ‘This is the one to which reference is made in Luke 2:2. If 
the birth of Jesus occurred at the time of this census, it must have 
been earlier than we usually suppose. Ramsay thinks that the 

1 Translated from Grenfell and Hunt’s Oxyrhynchus Papyri, II, 1898, p. 214. Kenyon, Greek 
Papyri in thel British Museum, II, 19, thinks that this cannot refer to a census because the term by 
which it is described is different, but, as Grenfell and Hunt remark, the simpler term in the papyri 
earlier than the year 61 A. D., indicates that we are nearer the beginning of the institution of the 
census. 


* Ibid., p. 205; cf. p. 206. 
8 Ibéd., p. 282. 


LIGHT ON THE ENROLMENT OF QUIRINIUS 505 


taking of the census in Judah may have been delayed till 7 or 6B. c., 
on account of Jewish prejudices. 

5. Document Showing that People Went to Their Own Towns 

for Enrolment. 

In connection with the census of Quirinius it is stated in Luke 
2:3: “All went to enroll themselves, every one to his own city.” 
This has been felt by many scholars to be an improbable statement, 
and has been cited as an evidence of the unhistorical character of the 
whole story of the census in Luke. In this connection part of a 
papyrus discovered in Egypt, which is dated in the 7th year of the 
Emperor Trajan, 103-104 a. D., is of great interest. This document 
contains three letters. The third of the letters is the one which re- 
lates to our subject. It is as follows:! 


Gaius Vibius, chief prefect of Egypt. Because of the approaching census it is 
necessary that all those residing for any cause away from their own nomes, 
should at once prepare to return to their own governments, in order that they 
may complete the family administration of the enrolment, and that the tilled 
lands may retain those belonging to them. Knowing that your city has need of 
provisions from the country, I wish.......... (At this point the papyrus be- 
comes too fragmentary for connected translation.) 


It is perfectly clear that in Egypt the enrolment was done on the 
basis of kinship. The word rendered ‘‘family” above [ovv73y] means 
“kindred” in the larger sense. The phrase rendered “belonging 
to” [them, 7. ¢., the tilled lands] also means “‘kindred.”” It appears, 
then, that in Egypt the enrolment of each district was intended to 
include all the kinsmen belonging to that district, and that, lest 
those residing elsewhere should forget to return home for the census, 
proclamations were issued directing them todoso. It is well known 
that in many respects the customs of administration in Syria and 
Egypt were similar. Luke’s statement, that Joseph went up from 
Nazareth to Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of 
David, to enroll himself with Mary (Luke 2 : 4, 5), turns out to be in 
exact accord with the governmental regulations as we now know 
them from the papyri. 

6. Inscription Supposed to Refer to Quirinius. 

A fragmentary inscription found at Rome in 1828 is thought by 
Mommsen and others to prove that Quirinius was governor of 
Syria twice, and that the governorship to which Josephus refers 
(Antiquities, XVII, i, 1), which was coincident with the deposition of 


1 Translated from Kenyon and Bell’s Greek Papyri in the British Museum, Vol. III, 1907, p. 125. 


506 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Archelaus in 6 A. D., was his second appointment. The inscription 
as filled out by Mommsen and others reads:! 


[P. Sulpicius Quirinius, consul.......... ; as proconsul obtained Crete and 
Cyrene as a province.......... ; as legate of the divine Augustus, obtaining 
Syria and Pheenicia he waged war with the tribe of Homonadenses who had killed 
Amyntas the k]ing; when he returned into the domi[nion of'the Emperor Cesar] 
Augustus and the Roman people, the senate [decreed] thanksgivings [to the 
immortal gods] on account of the two success[ful accomplishments] and tri- 
umphal ornaments to him; as proconsul he ob[tained] Asia as a province; as the 
legate of the divine Augustus he [obtained] again Syria and Phoenicia. 


If this inscription were intact its evidence would be decisive, but 
unfortunately it is only a fragment, and the name of Quirinius is 
just that which has to be supplied from other inscriptions. That so 
eminent a scholar as Mommsen thought that this name was the one 
which once began the inscription is of weight, but it does not com- 
pensate for the loss of the name. 

7. Inscription from Asia Minor Referring to Quirinius.” 

The following inscription, discovered by Prof. Ramsay and Mr. 
J. G. C. Anderson, of Oxford, is believed by Ramsay to prove that 
Quirinius was governor of Syria between 10 and 7 B. c. 


To Gaius Caristanius 

(son of Gaius of the Sergian tribe) Fronto- 
Caesianus Juli[us], 

Chief of engineers, pontifex, 

priest, prefect of P. Sulpicius Quirinius duumvir, 
prefect of M. Servilius. 

To him first of all men 

at public expense by decree of the decuriones, 

a statue was erected. 


This inscription was found at Antioch, a fortified colony in 
southeastern Phrygia or southern Galatia, in the year 1912. The 
name Caristanius connects its erection with the time of the Hamo- 
nadian war, 10-7 B.c. That Quirinius received the honor of an 
election to the office of honorary duumvir of the colony at this time, 
is held by Ramsay to prove that he had been sent to Syria as gover- 
nor, and had been military commander in the war against the 
Hamonades. It was the benefits which accrued to the little colony 
of Antioch from his victories in this war, which led to the election 

1 Translated from the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, XIV, No. 3613. 


* Translated after Ramsay, Expositor, series 8, Vol. IV, 1912, p. 401. For Ramsay’s opinions, 
see the article of which the inscription forms a part. 


ee ee Me ae ecieae 


Ta 


2 on oe ie 


Fa ae ee 


= eas ri 


k 
. 
é 
> 
3 
‘ 
‘ 
ay 
Sy 
447 
: 
By 
*: 
% 


LIGHT ON THE ENROLMENT OF QUIRINIUS 507 


and the erection of this statue. Ramsay, accordingly, holds that 
this inscription proves Quirinius to have been governor of Syria 
about 11-7 8.c., and this confirms the statement of Luke 2 : 2, that 
the census at the time when Jesus was born was the first enrol- 
ment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. 

One objection to this theory is that from other sources (Josephus, 
Antiquities, XVI, x, 8; xi, 3), it appears that Sentius Saturninus was 
governor of Syria at this time, 7. e., from 9-7 B. c., just at the time 
when, according to the papyri, the census should occur. This is 
supported by a statement of Tertullian, that Jesus was born when 
Saturninus was governor of Syria. To meet this objection, Ramsay 
supposes either that the authority of Quirinius and of Saturninus 
overlapped, the former being military commander and the latter 
civil governor, or that Quirinius ruled until about July 1st of the 
year 8, the census year, and Saturninus then took office. These 
are, however, mere possibilities. We have not yet clear information 
concerning these points. 

Later, in 6 A.D., Quirinius was sent out to Syria again (see Tacitus, 
Annales, II, 48), and took over as governor of Syria the kingdom of 
Judah on the deposition of Archelaus, and conducted the census 
there of 6-7 A.D. (See Josephus, Antiquities, XVIII, i.) Many 
scholars have held that Luke confused this governorship with earlier 
events and was accordingly in error as to his chronology by at least 
ten years, but the archeological facts here collected tend to cor- 
roborate Luke’s accuracy on this point. It should be added that 
Luke knew that Quirinius had charge of the census in Palestine in 
6 A. D., as Josephus states, for he says: ““This was the first enrolment 
made when Quirinius was governor of Syria.” 

8. Conclusions. 

It should in all candor be noted just what archeology has proved 
concerning this matter, and what points are still, from the arche- 
ological side, outstanding. It has proved that the census was a 
periodic occurrence once in fourteen years, that this system was in 
operation as early as 20 A. D., and that it was customary for people 
to go to their ancestral abodes for enrolment. It has made it prob- 
able that the census system was established by Augustus, and that 
Quirinius was governor of Syria twice, though these last two points 
are not yet fully established by archeological evidence. So far as 
the new material goes, however, it confirms the narrative of Luke. 


CHAPTER XXX 


ARCHAKOLOGICAL LIGHT ON THE ACTS AND EPISTLES 


THE POLITARCHS OF THESSALONICA. AN ALTAR TO UNKNOWN Gops. AN INSCRIP- 
TION FROM DELPHI AND THE DATE OF PAUL’sS CONTACT WITH GALLIO. Some EPISTLES 
FROM Ecypt, INSCRIPTIONS MENTIONING ARETAS, KING oF ARABIA. THE SyNa- 
GOGUE OF THE LIBERTINES. THE CHALICE OF ANTIOCH. 


1. The Politarchs of Thessalonica. 

In Acts 17 : 6 the rulers of Thessalonica are called in the Greek 
“politarchs.”’ It is a unique term, and its accuracy had been called 
in question by some scholars. Within the past hundred years no 
less than nineteen inscriptions have come to light which prove its 
accuracy, by referring to the rulers of Thessalonica as “‘politarchs.” 
One of the most important of these is from an arch in Thessalonica. 
It runs in part as follows, the beginning being illegible:! 


In the time of the Politarchs, Sosipatros, son of Cleopatra, and Lucius Pontius 
Secundus Publius Flavius Sabinus, Demetrius, son of Faustus, Demetrius of 
Nicopolis, Zoilos, son of Parmenio, and Meniscus Gaius Agilleius Poteitus...... 


Another fragmentary inscription shows that the rulers of the city 
bore this title as early as the time of Augustus. It is in part:? 


It is not clear from the inscriptions whether the number of poli- 
tarchs was five or six. 

2. An Altar to Unknown Gods. 

In Acts 17 : 23 it is stated that Paul saw in Athens an altar with 
this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. In the year 1909 an 
altar was discovered in the sacred precinct and temple of Demeter 
at Pergamos in Asia Minor, the home of one of the seven churches of 
the book of Revelation (Rev. 2 : 12, f.), which bore a mutilated in- 


1 Translated from Burton’s publication in the American Journal of Theology, II, 600. 
2 Translated from ibid., p. 604. 


508 


LIGHT ON THE ACTS AND EPISTLES 509 


scription; (see Fig. 299). This inscription in the judgment of 
several impartial epigraphists should be restored as follows:! 
To unknown gods, 


Capito, 
torch-bearer. 


This is not only a confirmation of the statement of Acts 17 : 23, 
but of Pausanias? (second century A. D.) and Philostratus?® (third 
century A. D.) that altars to unknown gods existed. 

3. The Date of Paul’s Contact with Gallio. 

The chronology of the life of Paul cannot be fully determined 
from the Bible itself. Such chronological data as the New Testa- 
ment affords help us only to a relative chronology. Could the 
year of one of the dates given by the New Testament be determined 
by a date of the Roman empire, it would enable scholars to fix 
with approximate certainty the other dates. Hitherto the endeavor 
to do this has centered about the recall of Felix from Palestine and 
the coming of Festus (Acts 24 : 27), but there has been so much un- 
certainty about the date of this recall, that systems of chronology, 
differing from one another by from four to five years, have been con- 
structed. A fragmentary inscription has come to light from Delphi, 
which seems to give us the desired aid for our Pauline chronology 
in that it fixes the date of the coming of Gallio to Corinth (Acts 18 : 
12). This inscription, as its lacune are supplied by Deissmann, is 
as follows: 

Tiberius Claudius Cesar Augustus Germanicus, Pontifex Maximus, of 


tribunican authority for the 12th time, imperator the 26th time, father of the 
country, consul for the 5th time, honorable, greets the city of the Delphians. 


Having long been well disposed to the city of the Delphians.......... I have 
had success. I have observed the religious ceremonies of the Pythian Apollo 
ry ek sae 4 now it is said also of the citizens...................-.€S 


Lucius Junius Gallio, my friend, and the proconsul of Achaia, wrote.......... 
on this account I accede to you still to have the first*.......... 


At this point the inscription is too broken for translation, al- 
though the beginnings of several lines can be made out. The im- 
portance of the inscription lies (1) in the fact that it mentions 
Gallio as proconsul of Achaia, and (2) in the reference to the 12th 
tribunican year and the 26th imperatorship of Claudius. It can 

1 Taken from Deissmann’s St. Paul, p. 261, f. 
2 Pausanias, i, 1:4, and v, 14: 8. 


3 Philostratus, Vita A polloniti, vi, 3. 
4 Translated from Deissmann’s St. Paul, pp. 246, 247. 


510 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


be deduced from these, in comparison with other inscriptions of his, 
that this letter was written between January and August of the year 
52 A.D.’ If Gallio was then in office, and had been in office long 
enough to give information to Claudius of material importance to 
the purpose of the emperor’s letter to the Delphians, Gallio must 
have arrived in Corinth not later than the year 51. According to 
Dio Cassius, Claudius had decreed that new officials should start for 
their provinces not later than the new moon of the month of June.’ 
Gallio must, therefore, have arrived in Corinth not later than July. 

Paul’s stay in Corinth extended over eighteen months (Acts 18 : 
11), and the narrative in Acts implies that a large part of it had 
passed before Gallio went there. Paul must, then, have arrived in 
Corinth not later than the end of the summer of the year 50. As 
the journey described in Acts 16 must have occupied some months, 
the council at Jerusalem, described in Acts 15, cannot have taken 
place later than the year 49 a. p. In Gal. 2:1 Paul says that this 
visit occurred fourteen years after the visit which followed his re- 
turn from Damascus. As the Jews in counting time usually 
reckoned the two extremes as a part of the number, even if a part of 
them only should really have been included, the visit of Paul to 
Jerusalem, mentioned in Gal. 1 : 18 must have occurred not later 
than 36 A. D., nor earlier than 35.a.p. As this visit occurred “three”? 
years after his conversion, we find, if we make similar allowance for 
the possibilities of Jewish reckoning, that his conversion occurred 
not later than 34 a. D., and possibly as early as 31 a. p.? 

4. The Epistles. 

The Epistles of the New Testament, especially those of Paul, are 
cast in the form of ancient letter-writing. This form in its more 
stately aspects has long been known through the letters of Aristotle, 
Epicurus, Cicero, Seneca, Pliny, etc., but the papyri discovered in 
Egypt afford us many examples of the more familiar and affectionate 
style of informal letter-writing, and frequently, at the beginning, 
afford parallels to expressions which are found in the introductions 
of Paul’s Epistles. The following examples will illustrate this: 


Isias to her brother, greeting: If you are well and other things happen as you 
wish, it would be in accordance with my constant prayer to the gods. I too am 
in good health, and so is the boy; and all at home make constant remembrance of 
you. When I got the letter through Horus, in which you explain that you are in 


1See Deissmann’s St. Paul, p. 248, ff. 2 Dio Cassius, lvii, 14, 5. 
’ The most reliable chronologies of the life of Christ now place his crucifixion not later than 30 
A.D. 


LIGHT ON THE ACTS AND EPISTLES Shi. 


sanctuary at the Serapeum in Memphis, I straightway gave thanks to the gods 
for your being in good health, but as for your not coming to us when the evils 
that threatened you there have passed away, I am disconsolate because such a 
long time I have been keeping myself and the child, and am come to the lowest 
point on account of the price of bread, and I did think that now you were coming 
I should find a little relief, but you seem to have no idea of coming to us, nor to 
have an eye to our circumstances, as you would if you were still here. We are in 
need of everything, not only because such a long time and so many seasons have 
passed since you were here, but because you have not sent us anything. And 
besides that, Horus, who brought your letter, tells me further that you are re- 
leased from sanctuary, and I am perfectly miserable. No, indeed! and your 
mother, too, takes it very hard, and you will do well to come for her sake as well 
as ours to the city, unless some more pressing need draws you elsewhere. Fare- 
well, then, and have a care for your body so as to be in health. Good-bye. 
Epephi 30th, of the 9th year. 


This letter was written in the year 172 B. c. “Brother” in it 
probably means husband. The husband had gone on a religious 
mission and has left the wife without support. He at last sent her 
a letter, and this is her reply. She wishes to persuade him to re- 
turn, and writes with great tact. What she says about remembering 
her husband in her prayers, and her thanks to the gods for his 
health, reminds one of the language of Paul in 1 Thess. 1:2; 3:9; 
Peres te a; 2: 13; 1 Cor. 1:4; 2.Cor. 1 : 4-6; Phil. 1:: 3,9; 
Col. 1:3; Philemon 4. 

‘Another letter which illustrates the same points is this: 


Ammonios to his sister Tachnumi, much greeting: Before all things I pray that 
you may be in health, and each day I make the act of worship for you. I salute 
heartily my goodest little boy Leo. I am jolly and so is the horse and Melas. 
Don’t neglect my son. I salute Senchris, and I salute your mother. I likewise 
salute Pachnumiand Pachnumijunior. I salute...... and Amenothis. Hurry 
up about the boy until we go to my place. If I come to the place and see the 
place, I will send for you and you shall come to Pelusium, and I will come to 
youat Pelusium. Isalute Steches, the son of Pancrates. Isalute Psemmouthis 
and Plato. If your brothers dispute with you, come to my house and stay there 
until we see what to do. Don’t neglect it. Write me of your own welfare and 
of my boy’s. Hurry up over the matter of the farm. I wrote this letter in 
Themuis on the fifth of the month Phamenoth. We have two days more, and 
then we will arrive at Pelusium. Melas greets you all by name. I salute 
Psenchnumi, the son of Psentermout. I pray that you may be well and strong? 


The sentence of this letter which follows the greeting is couched in 
almost the same language as 3 John 2, and the number of people 
saluted in it and the manner of their salutation reminds one strongly 
of Rom. 16 : 3-16. 


1 The original is in Berlin and the publication is not accessible to the writer. The above trans- 
lation is taken from that of J. Rendel Harris in the Expositor, 5th series, Vol. VIII, p. 164. 
2 Translated by J. Rendel Harris, ibid., p. 166. 


912 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Clearly the New Testament Epistles conform in their affection- 
ate expressions to the forms that were often employed by other 
letter-writers of that period of history. 

5. Paul and Aretas, King of Arabia. 

Paul says: “In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king 
guarded the city of the Damascenes in order to take me.’" Aretas 
is called by Josephus king of Arabia. He was Haretat IV, King of 
the Nabathzan Arabs. These Nabatheans were found in Arabia 
by the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal (668-626 B. c.); they conquered 
Edom about 400 B. c., driving the Edomites over into southern 
Judah; they helped one of the successors of Alexander the Great at 
the battle of Gaza in 312 B. c., and founded a dynasty of kings that 
lasted until overthrown by the Roman Emperor Trajan in 106 A. p. 
Haretat IV belonged to this line. The following Aramaic inscrip- 
tion, dated in his reign, affords monumental confirmation of his 
existence: 

This is the tomb which Halafu, son of Kosnatan, made for himself and for 
Shaidu, his son, and his brothers, whatever males are born from this Halifu, 
both their sons and descendants by right of inheritance forever. And those who 
may be buried in this sepulcher and in this structure are this Shaidu and Man- 
uath, Kenushath, and Ribamath, and Umaiyath and Shalimath, daughters 
of this Halifu. Also no descendant of Shaidu has authority, and no man after 
him of their sons or descendants, to sell this sepulcher, or to inscribe an epitaph 
or an emblem for anyone, except for the wife of one of them, or for his daughters, 
or kinsman, or relative by marriage he may inscribe the tomb. If any one shall 
do contrary to this, then the fine of Dushara, the god, our lord, shall be imposed 
upon him to the extent of five hundred silver shekels of Haretat, and in accord- 
ance with this inscription shall be deposited in the temple of Kaisha. Month 


Nisan, year fortieth of Haretat, King of the N abathzans, who loves his people. 
Rauma and Abdobodat, stone-cutters.? 


As Haretat ruled from 9 B. c. to 40 a. D., this inscription was 
written in 31 a. D., just a few years before Paul escaped from the 
officers of Haretat at Damascus. There are many other inscrip- 
tions dated in the reign of this king. 

Another reads as follows: 


This is the sepulcher and two monuments over it, which Abdobodat, the 
general, made for Aitebel, the general, his father, and for Aitebel, the commander 
of the two camps which are in Luhitu and Abarta, the son of Abdobodat. This 
is in the district of their command, which they exercised in the two places for 
thirty-six years in the reign of Haretat, King of the N abathzans, who loves his 
people. The above-mentioned (monument) was constructed in the forty-sixth 
year of his reign.3 


12 Cor. 11: 32. 
? Translated from the Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum, Pars II, Tom. I, Fase. ii, No.. 209. 
3 Ibid., Pars II, Tom. I, Fasc. ii, No. 196. 


Se 


F 
‘ 
‘ 
4 
f 

’ 

i 
g 
My 
* 


LIGHT ON THE ACTS AND EPISTLES S13 


The forty-sixth year of Haretat was the year 37 A. p. The 
monument here translated was found at Medeba east of the 
Jordan (see Num. 21 : 30; Josh. 13 : 9), and the two places men- 
tioned in it are believed to be Nabathzan names for Medeba and 
Rabbah Ammon (2 Sam. 11:1, etc.). It is evidence that Haretat 
had held this territory for a long time. Paul’s escape from Damas- 
cus (2 Cor. 11 : 32) occurred between the date of the preceding in- 
scription and this one. 

6. The Synagogue of the Libertines. 

Captain Weill, while excavating at Jerusalem in 1913-1914, 
found an inscription which reads as follows:! 


Theodotos, son of Vettenos, priest and ruler of the synagogue, son of a 
ruler of the synagogue, and grandson of a ruler of the synagogue, constructed 
the synagogue for the reading of the Law and the teaching of the command- 
ments and also its chambers and cisterns as a hospice for the needy from 
abroad—which (synagogue) was founded by his fathers and the elders and 
Simonides. 


Theodotos is a Greek translation of the name Nathaniel; he is 
said to have been a ruler of the synagogue and a descendant of 
rulers of the synagogue. His father’s name is Latin and probably 
indicates that he had once been a bondman of the family of Vettius 
—a well-known Roman name. When Pompey conquered Jeru- 
salem in 63 B. c. he carried many Jews captive to Rome, where 
they became slaves. Later many of them were emancipated, and 
became “freedmen”’ or, in Latin, libertines. We learn from Acts 
6:9 that there was in Jerusalem a synagogue of the Libertines in 
which Stephen preached. It seems a plausible conjecture, there- 
fore, that this inscription comes from this very synagogue. The 
generous builder established in connection with it a hospice for the 
entertainment of freedmen who made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem 
from Italy and who were poor. 

7. The Chalice of Antioch. 

Early in the year 1910 some Arabs who were digging a well on 
the site of the ancient city of Antioch in Syria came upon a buried 
treasure. They refuse to disclose the exact spot at which it was 
found, but state that it was in the deeply buried ruins of a cathedral. 
The treasure consisted of a great chalice bearing twelve figures, be- 
lieved by able archeological authorities to represent Christ and 
the Apostles; also a plain silver chalice of early medieval date; 

1 Translated from the Greek text in R. Weill’s La Cite de David, Paris, 1920, p. 186. 


514 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


and two decorated silver book-covers which evidently belonged to 
the same volume and which were made in the fourth century; also 
another book-cover and a large ornamented cross. 

The Arabs divided the objects among themselves, and some of 
them changed hands several times and passed eastward to Meso- 
potamia. Salim and Constantine Kouchakji heard of the dis- 
covery and after two years or more secured and assembled the ob- 
jects and sent them to their brother George of the firm of Kouchakji 
Fréres of Paris and New York. Of these objects by far the most 
important is the chalice first mentioned. When it arrived in Paris 
it was badly oxidized, but in time the oxidation was successfully 
removed by Alfred André. Soon after this the Great War broke out 
and, on the eve of the battle of the Marne, the chalice was forwarded 
by George Kouchakji to the representatives of the firm in New 
York—his brother Habib Kouchakji and his nephew Fahim Kou- 
—chakji, in whose care it has since been. 

These gentlemen have taken the greatest interest in the object 
and have been most generous in permitting it to be studied. They 
have now published two large folio volumes! on it, one containing 
descriptive text, together with critical, artistic, and archeological 
discussions, and the other, sixty plates on which the figures and 
decorations carved on the chalice are reproduced in various sizes; 
also, in addition, etched reproductions of the human figures. The 
volume was prepared by Dr. Gustavus A. Eisen, who has been 
aided by several artists. 

It seems probable that this treasure was buried when the cathedral 
of Antioch was closed by order of the Emperor Julian in 362 a.p., 
or when it was destroyed by Chosroes II of Persia in 611 a. p. 
The character of some of the objects found with the chalice sug- 
gests that it was buried at the last-mentioned date. It lay hid- 
den until accidentally found in 1910. 

The chalice consists of two portions, an inner cup, hammered 
out of a plain sheet of silver, and an outer receptacle. On the 
outer receptacle the twelve figures mentioned were carved by ex- 
quisite workmanship and afterward the silver between the figures 
was cut away so as to let the inner cup show through the inter- 
stices. All agree that the inner cup is older than the receptacle 
and that it was regarded as a very sacred object—so sacred that 
this wonderful receptacle was made to hold it. The whole consists 

1 The Great Chalice of Antioch by Gustavus A. Eisen, New York, Kouchakji Fréres, 1923. 


PieeeoNe tHE ACTS AND EPISTLES apts: 


of an “ovoid truncated bowl or container,” holding almost three 
quarts, “supported by a low and narrow foot-stand, a type in use 
only during the first two centuries of the Roman empire. Later, 
with the end of the first century, this form was superseded by others, 
consequent upon the introduction of blown glass as a material 
for vessels.”” The “others” referred to had a foot-stand with a 
broader base. This statement of Dr. Eisen as to the period when 
this form of base was in vogue is borne out by a wide induction 
from facts. 

This is a type of cup-base common in the reigns of Augustus 
and ‘Tiberius. It is said that only one example is known from a 
later date, and that is a cup pictured in a wall-painting from Pom- 
peil;' but even that wall-painting may have been made as early as 
the reign of Tiberius, though Pompeii was not destroyed until 79 a. D. 
On opposite sides of the receptacle there are two figures of the 
same person carved in full front view; one represents him as a 
youth holding a roll, the other portrays him as a mature man. 
Around each of these two figures five other figures are grouped all 
looking in adoration toward one of the first-mentioned figures. 
The carving was evidently intended to do great honor to the person 
represented by the facing figures. Who was he? ‘The way in which 
these figures are presented is not unlike the way the Emperor 
Augustus is sometimes represented, and the form of the cup and 
its exquisite art are in keeping with the Augustan period. If, 
however, these figures represented Augustus, who were the other ten, 
each of which is so characteristic that it seems to be the portrait 
of a known person? On this theory they cannot be accounted for. 

Dr. Eisen, who has spent nine years in the study of the cup, be- 
lieves the two central figures to be figures of the Christ, one rep- 
resenting him as a youth, the other as the Saviour of the world. 
There is much in the portrayal to commend this view. The right 
hand of the figure, representing the Saviour of the world, touches a 
plate on which are five loaves and two fishes; by his side and below 
the plate stands a lamb; just beyond the plate is a dove. All this 
seems to breathe Christian symbolism derived from the Gospels— 
Christ the Lamb of God, on whom the Spirit descended as a dove, 
miraculously feeding the world. Beneath the feet of the Christ 
is a Roman eagle—symbol of the empire—so placed that it is be- 
neath the feet of the figure of the Christ. Running throughout 
the carved decorations of the cup, artistically intertwined with 


1A cup of similar shape, but without a pedestal and base, is also pictured on the Arch of Titus, 
but may have been made some time before the year 70 A. D. 


516 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


other forms, is the design of a vine, which could suggest Christ the 
true vine. (See Figs. 311, 312.) 

Working on this theory Dr. Eisen has with great ingenuity identi- 
fied the other figures. The four about the youthful Christ he be- 
lieves to be the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; 
the fifth John’s brother, James, the son of Zebedee, who was 
added because of his kinship to John. The four about the mature 
Christ he believes to be Peter, Paul, James, and Jude (the last two 
brothers of the Lord), while Andrew, Peter’s brother, is added as 
the fifth figure, to correspond to the addition of John’s brother in 
the other group. 

Although the figures are scarcely two inches high and the faces 
are about the size of a small bullet, the carving is so admirably 
done that each stands out with the individual characteristics of 
an actual portrait. Dr. Eisen, who thinks that this carved work 
was done in the second half of the first century not later than 
the year 70, believes that we possess in these figures not only actual 
portraits of the Apostles and evangelists, but two genuine por- 
traits of the Christ himself. It must be said that the portraits 
supposed to be those of the Christ are quite unlike the imagina- 
tions of artists of later time. They are faces, strong, full of 
dignity and sweetness. 

With reference to the artistic work, it should be added that 
when tested by the mathematical canons of art, which it is now 
known that Greek artists employed but which were later lost, the 
artistic work on this cup is demonstrably Greek in character. It 
was done apparently by one of the last disciples of the Greek school 
—a disciple who was also a master. Dr. Eisen’s view, when first 
propounded, strikes every scholar as preposterous, but the more he 
examines the archeological reasons on which it is based, the more 
possible it seems. If the artistic work was done in the first cen- 
tury, what cup, except one, would be so honored? It is immedi- 
ately suggested that in the inner cup we have at last the Holy 
Grail—the cup actually used by Christ at the Last Supper! That 
view is further suggested by the fact that bits of silver have been 
cut from the rim of the inner cup, apparently as sacred relics. 
The present writer, while recognizing that possibility, is not yet 
fully convinced of its correctness. Scholarly criticism will still 
have much to say of Dr. Eisen’s acute and loving work, and it is 
too early to pronounce a positive opinion. 


LIGHT ON THE ACTS AND EPISTLES 517 


If this wonderful chalice is a first century product, it will not 
only throw much light on such passages as 1 Cor. 10 : 14-22, but, 
if the four evangelists are really represented in these early fig- 
ures, it will compel the revision of some current theories of the 
authorship of the Gospel of John and some other New Testament 
books. Further discussion of the subject is accordingly awaited 
with the greatest interest. 

Mr. Fahim Kouchakji graciously permitted the writer to ex- 
amine the precious chalice, and he also had the privilege of dis- 
cussing some points concerning it with Dr. Eisen. The writer’s 
knowledge of the development of early Christian literature and 
traditions leads him to believe that the Christian ideas represented 
on this cup, if it is a Christian object, as he believes it is, are ap- 
propriate to the years 120-140 a. p., rather than to the period 
50-70 a. p.!- When Dr. Eisen is asked, if it could not have been 
made in the second century as well as in the last half of the first, 
he answers with a positive negative: “It would have been im- 
possible for any artist in the second century to do such work. 
They knew nothing of refined Greek art in the second century.” 
When further questioned, however, he admits that, if he did not 
believe it to be a Christian work, he would date it in the reign of 
Augustus or Tiberius. Since, however, it is a Christian object, he 
feels compelled to date it later than their reigns. 

With reference to this reasoning, two observations occur to the 
present writer. The statement that refined Greek Art was unknown 
in the second century and that therefore it would have been quite 
impossible for this beautiful piece of work to have been done by a 

1 The principal point to be considered is the date of the Gospel of John. The testimony of 
early Christian writers, as well as the verdict of modern critical scholarship, places the writing of 
that Gospel at about 90 to 100 a.p. On Dr. Eisen’s interpretation of these figures, this chalice 
was carved after it was known that John was one of the Evangelists, for he is honored as such. 
If, therefore, this carving was done as early as 70 A. D., we should have to suppose that the Gos- 
pel of John was written at least as early as 50 A. p.—a supposition which is contrary both to tra- 
dition and critical judgment. Two eminent authorities in classical archeology, Professor Strzy- 
gowski of Vienna, and Mr. Arthur Bernard Cook of Cambridge University, England, have exam- 
ined Dr. Eisen’s work and have pronounced the chalice genuine. Mr. Cook says of it, “The 
Chalice of Antioch is certainly genuine and, as it stands, unique. There is no other like it in 
shape or style. The style, so far as we can tell, would suit the Greek work of the Flavian [70-96 
A. D.] or, perhaps, the Trajanic period” (98-116 A. p.]. The whole matter is discussed by Pro- 
fessor F. J. Foakes Jackson in four articles in the Churchman for February 2d and 9th, and August 
16th and 23d, 1924. Professor Jackson considers the opinions just qucted of great weight, and 
sums up the results thus: “This much seems to be established, that it is a piece of the first century, 


of great beauty, designed and executed by a craftsman of the first rank, a man impregnated with 
the best traditions of Greek art, a worthy follower of the great sculptor Scopas, who flourished 


some centuries earlier.” 


518 ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


second century artist, is based on silence (i. e., on a lack of examples 
of art of this beauty coming from that century). This sounds very 
like statements of a dogmatic character which one has often heard 
from critics, which afterward were proved to be wrong. Again, 
Dr. Eisen himself is compelled to date the object from thirteen to 
thirty years later than any portraits of similar merit that are known 
to him, in order to meet the necessities of his theory of its Christian 
significance. To the present writer it seems no more difficult to 
extend the possibility of the survival of this artistic knowledge 
and power fifty years longer. In other words, he is not convinced 
that our knowledge of the history of the art of this time is suffi- 
cient to enable us to rule out the possibility of a second century 
date. 

About 120-140 a. p. Christianity attracted a number of Greeks 
who brought to it the Greek freedom of intellect and who devoted 
their talents to its interpretations. There was the author of the 
Epistle to Diognetus, Justin Martyr, the Athenian philosopher 
Aristides, who wrote an “apology” for Christianity, and others. 
These men were skilled in philosophy and possessed of philosophic 
insight. May there not have been among them a Greek artist, 
one of the last of his kind, who devoted his talents to the creation 
of this honorary receptacle for the cup from which his Lord had 
drunk, imitating in the form of its pedestal the form of the earlier 
pedestal which his displaced? This is one of the interesting prob- 
lems which perhaps future study will enable us to solve. 

If this cup is a Christian chalice (and of this the writer has no 
doubt), it is one of the most valuable of archzological objects, 
and, if Dr. Eisen’s dating of it proves to be correct and the por- 
traits which it bears are authentic, it will far surpass in value all 
other archeological objects known. 


CHAPTER XxXxI 


A FEW OF THE OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS OF ARCHO- 
LOGICAL RESEARCH TO THE UNDERSTANDING OF 
THE BIBLE AND EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE. 


FRAGMENTS OF A HEBREW TEXT OF THE COMMANDMENTS. HEBREW TEXT OF 
Ecciestasticus. ENnocu. OTHER APOCRYPHA. DOCUMENTS OF THE ZADOKITE SECT. 
Tue Srnaitic MANUSCRIPT. OTHER NEW TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS. WASHINGTON 
GospPets. THE CURETONIAN AND SINAI Syriac. Coptic VERSIONS. TATIAN’S 
DIATESSARON. THE GOSPEL AND REVELATION OF PETER. THE ODES OF SOLOMON. 
SuUB-APOSTOLIC WriTINGS. THE APOLOGY oF ARISTIDES. THE GREEK PAPYRI. 


WE have now accomplished what we set out to do, and have 
presented the reader with the principal texts, brought to light by 
archeological research, which illumine certain books and passages 
of the Scriptures. We have, however, by no means presented a 
complete survery of the rich material which modern research has 
contributed as an aid to our understanding of the sacred text. 
That research has not only discovered facts which throw light on 
particular verses, documents, and compositions which afford paral- 
lels to whole books, but has also presented us with new copies of 
the text of many books—in some instances new copies of the text 
of the whole Bible—recovered for us many ancient writings, once 
closely associated with the Scriptures, and given us hundreds of 
documents, written in the language of the New Testament, which 
throw a flood of light on the New Testament Greek and help us 
to a new understanding of some of its difficult portions. Some of 
this new material has been dug from the dust-heaps where the 
ancients emptied their waste-baskets, some of it has been found in 
the receptacles into which the old books of synagogues, monas- 
teries, and libraries were thrown. All of it belongs to what might 
be called literary research, but it comes from the region in which 
archeology and literature meet. 

To treat in detail all this material would require another volume 
as large as this one, overgrown as this one already is. It is mani- 
festly impossible to do that here. To ignore it altogether would 
be to convey the impression that in the preceding pages a complete 
summary of the contributions of archeology to the understanding 
of the Bible and Biblical times had been given. It seems best, 

519 


520 _ ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


therefore, in this concluding chapter, to give a brief account of 
the most important of these discoveries, adding references to the 
books in which more complete information may be found. 

1. Fragments of Hebrew Text. 

It is well known that the'Hebrew of the Old Testament was 
written in consonants only and that for centuries the vowels were 
supplied by the reader. As this led to a variety of differences in 
interpretation, a system of vowel points was invented and adopted 
at some time between the fifth and the ninth centuries of the 
Christian era. By means of this system the meaning of the text 
that had become traditional among orthodox Jews was fixed. 
This system is called by the Jews ““Masorah,’”! and the unknown 
scribes by whom it was fixed upon the text are called ““Massorets.” 
Such was the authority of this tradition, when once adopted, that 
all manuscripts which did not contain it were destroyed or allowed 
to perish. It thus happens that no manuscript of the Hebrew text 
of any part of the Old Testament is known that can be dated with 
any certainty earlier than the tenth century A. D.2- Acopy of the 
Prophetic Books is preserved at Petrograd (or must we say Lenine- 
grad?) which was written in 916 a. p. Some copies of other parts 
of the Old Testament are known, which bear earlier dates, but 
these dates are, for one reason or another, believed to be spurious.? 
All other manuscripts of the Bible are later than this one at Petro- 
grad. 

While there are slight variations in the readings of Hebrew manu- 
scripts, as may be seen by referring to the works of DeRossi and 
Kennicott, they are of minor importance, and scholars have to 
tely, for a knowledge of earlier forms of the Hebrew text, upon 
the translations of it made into Greek, Latin, Syriac, and other 
languages. While these versions were made some centuries before 
the Masorah, they are at the best but imperfect instruments with 
which to work, as the translators often did not understand the 
Hebrew which they were translating. 

It is for this reason that four fragments of papyrus, written in 
Hebrew, and forming parts of the same leaf, which were found 
somewhere in Egypt a few years ago, and which contain the Ten 
Commandments and the great commandment of Deut. 6: 5, is an 


1 See ““Masorah,” in the Jewish Encyclopedia, VIII, 365 ff. 

2 See Encyclopedia Biblica, IV, col. 5013. 

3 See Jewish Encyclopedia, IIT, 180. 

* See A. S. Geden, Introduction to the Hebrew Bible, Edinburg, 1909, Ch. V. 


THE BIBLE AND EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE 521 


important archeological discovery. The Commandments are given 
in a mixed form partly according to the version of Deuteronomy 
5, and partly according to Exodus 20, though with variations in 
detail. The text is believed by experts in palzography to have been 
written not later than the second century A. D. It is not certain 
whether it was part of a copy of the Pentateuch or whether it was 
a lectionary or book of instruction, or possibly a charm. If it was 
part of a Bible the book of Deuteronomy was, in this copy, con- 
siderably shorter than in our Bible, for Deut. 5 : 21 is followed by 
Deut. 6: 1a, and that by Deut. 6: 4,5. Some have thought it 
must be part of a book, as Jews were prohibited from making ex- 
cerpts for reading lessons. The composite character of the text 
points, however, in the opinion of the present writer, to the theory 
that it is not part of a Bible, but is a portion of a book of selec- 
tions. The papyrus was purchased from a dealer and is (or was) 
owned by an English gentleman.! The text reads as follows: 


1. I am Jehovah thy God who brought thee from the land of Egypt, from 
the house of bondage. 

2. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make for thy- 
self any graven image, the likeness of anything which is in the heavens above, 
or which is in the earth beneath, or which is in the waters under the earth: 
thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them, for I Jehovah, thy 
God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, 
upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me; and show- 
ing mercy unto thousands of those who love me and who keep my command- 
ments. 

3. Thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain, for Jehovah 
will not hold him guiltless who taketh his name in vain. 

4. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor 
and do all thy work: but on the seventh day is a Sabbath to Jehovah thy God: 
in it thou shalt do no work, thou and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man- 
servant, and thy maid-servant, thy ox and thy ass, and any of thy cattle, and 
thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days Jehovah made the heavens 
and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh 
day, wherefore Jehovah blessed the seventh day and hallowed it. 

5. Honor thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee and 
that thy days may be long upon the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee. 

6. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 

7. Thou shalt not kill. 

8. Thou shalt not steal. 

9. Thou shalt not bear vain witness against thy neighbor. 

10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house. Thou shalt not covet thy 
neighbor’s wife, nor his field, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor 
his ox, nor his ass, nor anything which is thy neighbor’s. 

These are the statutes and the judgments which Moses commanded the chil- 
dren of Israel in the wilderness, when they went forth out of the land of Egypt. 

Hear, O Israel; Jehovah, our God Jehovah, one is he: and thou shalt love 
Perea ty Arad with all thy béarte 5 clu yke ee aca bes eis dak one 


5 See S. A. Cook in Proc. of the Soc. of Bibl. Arch., XXV, 30-60, and Geden, of. cit., 57 ff. 


922 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


It is interesting to note how the text here presented differs from 
both Deuteronomy and Exodus. The motive given for the ob- 
servance of the Sabbath Day is that of Ex. 20: 11, ff. rather than 
that of Deut. 5: 15 ff. The order of the seventh and eighth Com- 
mandments is reversed, and in the great commandment of Deut. 
6 : 4, a word is added so as to make it read, ‘‘one is he.” In the 
tenth Commandment the “house” is put before the “wife” of the 
neighbor. It is a most interesting text. 

2. The Hebrew Text of Ecclesiasticus. 

Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of the Son of Sirach, is one of the 
Apocryphal books, still bound up in pulpit Bibles between the Old 
and New Testaments. It was written by one Joshua (in Greek, 
Jesus) the son of Sirach about 180 B. c. and translated into Greek 
by his grandson about 130 B. c. The Greek text of this transla- 
tion formed part of the Bible of the early Christians, was translated 
into the various ancient languages of the people who were Chris- 
tianized, and through the Latin Vulgate became a part of the Bible 
of the Western Church. At the Reformation the Protestants ac- 
cepted for their Old Testament Canon only books that existed in 
Hebrew, so Ecclesiasticus was relegated to the Apocrypha, or 
books suited to private reading only and not authoritative in de- 
termining faith. The Hebrew text disappeared centuries ago. 
As the Greek version of the books of which we have the Hebrew 
text is a poor substitute for the Hebrew, this was a serious draw- 
back to the understanding of the book. This lack was supplied 
in 1899 by the publication of the Hebrew text of ““The Wisdom of 
Ben Sira,” which had been discovered by Schechter and Taylor 
three years before in the Genizah of the old synagogue of Fostat 
near Cairo in Egypt. The word Genizah means literally “hiding- 
place.” It is a storehouse or cemetery in which books and papers 
which contain the divine Name, and which cannot, therefore, be 
destroyed, but which have been discarded, either because they are 
old or are heretical, are thrown. The synagogue in which this text 
was found is very old. It was once a Christian Church, built in 
the Byzantine period, which became a Jewish synagogue in 616 
A. D., when the Persian Chosroes conquered Egypt. 

Here in May, 1896, Dr. Solomon Schechter, then of Cambridge 
University, England, discovered a leaf of the Hebrew text of 
Ecclesiasticus. In December of that year he returned to Cairo 
and brought back to England much of the contents of this Genizah, 


THE BIBLE AND EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE 523 


in which were found most of the remaining parts of the Hebrew 
text of Sirach as well as many other treasures. The publication of 
this text inaugurated a new era in the study of Ecclesiasticus, and 
a large literature has grown up about the book during the twenty- 
five years that have since passed.! 

3. The Book of Enoch. 

A Jewish apocalypse, which was popular among the early 
Christians and is quoted in verse 14 of the Epistle of Jude, is the 
Book of Enoch. It is made up of a series of apocalypses written 
between 200 B. c. and the beginning of the Christian Era, most of 
which were attributed to the antediluvian Patriarch Enoch? 
After about 300 A. D. its popularity waned and after the ninth 
century it ceased to be quoted by Christian writers. It also ceased 
to be copied, so that, when the revival of learning occurred in the 
sixteenth century, it had been completely lost. 

This important book was recovered by James Bruce (1730-1794), 
who endeavored between 1768 and 1773 to discover the sources of 
the river Nile. In this endeavor he traveled through Egypt, Nubia, 
and Abyssinia. In the last-mentioned country he found an Ethiopic 
translation of the Book of Enoch which in 1773 he brought back to 
Europe and thus restored this book to Christian scholarship. 
Twenty-nine Ethiopic manuscripts of it are now known in Europe 
and America. 

A Greek translation of the first thirty-two chapters of Enoch 
were found in a Christian tomb at Akhmim in Egypt in 1886-1887 
by some French archeologists. It was the custom of the ancient 
Egyptians to place in the hands of one who had died a roll con- 
taining these extracts from the Book of the Dead which he might 
need to refer to in his examination before the god Osiris. Christians 
kept up the same custom, only they substituted rolls containing 
extracts relating to the future life from books regarded by them as 
sacred or semi-sacred. It was thus that this extract from Enoch was 
preserved. Dr. M. R. James in 1893 discovered in the British 
Museum a Latin version of a part of Chapter 104. The best trans- 
lations of Enoch are those by Canon R. H. Charles.’ 


1 See The Wisdom of Ben Sira, by S. Schecter and C. Taylor, Cambridge, 1899; Ecclesiasticus: 
the Fragments Hitherto Recovered of the Hebrew Text in Facsimile, by M. Gaster, Cambridge and 
Oxford, 1901; The Hebrew Text of the Book of Ecclesiasticus, Leyden, 1904; also the articles ‘‘Eccle- 
siasticus” in Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible and the Encyclopedia Biblica, and ‘‘Sirach, the 
Wisdom of Jesus the Son of,” in the Jewish Encyclopedia. 

2 One was attributed to Noah. 

3 The Book of Enoch, 1893, 2d ed., 1912; also in Vol. II of Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, 
edited by R. H. Charles. Charles has also given us the best edition of the Ethiopic text: The 
Ethiopic Version of the Book of Enoch, Oxford, 1906. 


524: ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Archeological research has thus restored to our knowledge a 
book of the highest importance for the understanding of the de- 
velopment of the Messianic idea among the Jews in the centuries 
just before the coming of Christ. It was originally written partly 
in Hebrew and partly in Aramaic. Through the researches of a 
Slavonic scholar, Kazok, and of two Englishmen, W. R. Morfill 
and R. H. Charles, another work, The Book of the Secrets of Enoch, 
was brought to light between 1892 and 1896. This is a work of no 
less importance for the understanding of ancient Judaism than the 
other. It was written originally in Egypt in the Greek language, 
during the first half of the first century of the Christian Era—per- 
haps, therefore, while Christ was still living. The manuscripts of 
it which have been found are written in Russian and Serbian.1 

4. Other Apocrypha. 

The recovery of the two apocalypses of Enoch mentioned above 
does not stand alone. By similar research a body of apocryphal 
literature as large or larger than that which had been preserved for 
us in the Greek version of the Old Testament has been recovered. 
Space makes it impossible to do more than make a brief mention of 
this literature. To treat it adequately would require a large volume? 

It includes the so-called Third and Fourth Books of Maccabees ,3 
which appear to have been written before 40 a. p. and which were 
written in Greek; The Book of Jubilees,4 written between 153 and 
105 B. c., found in an Ethiopic version—a book which gives a com- 
pendium of Jewish history arranged in periods of fifty years each; 
Lhe Book of Adam and Eve, written between the first and fourth 
centuries A. D. in Greek; The M artyrdom of Isaiah, written in 
the first century a. D., also written in Greek ; The Testament 
of the Twelve Patriarchs,> originally written in Hebrew before 100 
B. C., later interpolated by Jews, it was translated into Greek be- 
fore 50 A. D., and later again interpolated by Christians, and, in 
this more expanded form translated into Latin in the thirteenth 
century; Sibylline Oracles, written in Greek hexameter verse in 
the second century® zB. c., to popularize Biblical history among the 


1 Translated by W. R. Morfill and R. H. Charles, Book of the Secrets of Enoch, Oxford, 1896. 

2 The whole of this literature is translated with adequate introductions in Apocrypha and Pseud- 
epigrapha, edited by R. H. Charles, 2 vols., Oxford Univ. Press, 1913. 

3 In addition to the treatment in the work last cited, see Jewish Encyclopedia, VIII, 241-244 

4 See also R. H. Charles, The Book of Jubilees, London, 1902. 

5 See also R. H. Charles, Greek Versions of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, Oxford, 
1908, and his Testaments of the Twelve Pairiarchs, London, 1908. 

6 An English translation of the Sibylline Oracles was also made by the late Milton S. Terry and 
published in New York in 1890, 


THE BIBLE AND EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE 525 


heathen; The Assumption of Moses,! written in Aramaic before 70 
A. D.; An Apocalypse of Baruch,? written originally in Hebrew dur- 
ing the first century of our era by six different hands, has come 
down to us in a Syriac version; another, written after 50 A. p., has 
survived in a Greek version; while still another, called The Rest 
of the Words of Baruch, written in the second century A. D., has 
come to us in an Ethiopic version; The Psalms of Solomon, written 
between 63 and 48 B. C., survive in Greek; and The Story of Akhtk- 
ar,* a Jewish tale that has come down to us in many languages. 

These books, which belong to that border-land where archzo- 
logical research merges into literary study, present us with a pic- 
ture of the ideas that were dominant in Judaism during the Apostolic 
Age—ideas which many Christians shared—and are invaluable in 
helping us to trace the currents of influence with which primitive 
Christianity was surrounded. 

5. Documents of a Zadokite Sect. 

Among the manuscripts brought by Dr. Schechter from the 
Genizah at Cairo were two that contained part of the teachings 
of a sect which bore the name of Zadok,® which seems to have re- 
garded as their Messiah some teacher who lived about the time of 
the Maccabzan revolt, and the adherents of which withdrew from 
their brethren and went and lived in Damascus, where their founder 
and Messiah died. The fragments of their writings discovered by 
Schechter show that they esteemed David lightly in comparison 
with Zadok, the priest. Their Messiah and founder was a priest 
who traced his descent from Zadok, and priests held an important 
place in the organization of the sect. They esteemed the Law 
highly, and were strict in their morals. 

The documents make frequent reference to the Book of Jubilees, 
the calendar of which the sect had adopted. They appear to have 
been written, therefore, during the first century B. c. The sect 
appears to have continued long enough for a knowledge of it to 
have reached the Karaites, who split off from the main body of 
Jews in the eighth century A. D., whose founder makes reference to 
the defection of Zadok. It is not improbable, therefore, that this 
sect was present in Damascus when St. Paul preached there. 


1 See also Charles’ Assumption of Moses, London, 1897. 

2 See also Charles’ A pocalypse of Baruch, London, 1896. 

3 See also Ryle and James, Psalms of Solomon, Cambridge, 1896. 

4 See also The Story of Ahikar, by F. C. Coneybeare, J. Rendel Harris, and Agnes Smith Lewis, 
London, 1898. 

5 See Schechter, Documents of the Jewish Sectaries, I, Cambridge, 1910, and R. H. Charles, 
Apocrypha and Pseudépigrapha, II. 


526 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


6. The Sinaitic Manuscript. 

Through the branch of archeological research of which we are 
now speaking, notable additions have also been made to the docu- 

ments which testify to the text of the New Testament and to those 
which reveal the life and spirit of the early Church. Perhaps the 
most famous of these contributions is the so-called ‘‘Sinaitic Manu- 
script,” which was discovered by Constantine Tischendorf in the 
Convent of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai in 1859. The story has 
been often told! and need only be alluded to here. Tischendorf 
visited the monastery in 1844, and while there picked out of a 
waste-basket forty-three leaves of an old manuscript, which the 
monks let him take back to Europe with him. These leaves con- 
tained part of the text of the Septuagint, as the Greek translation 
of the Old Testament is called. Nine years later, in 1853, he visited 
St. Catherine’s again in the hope of finding the rest of the manu- 
script, but secured only one leaf. He supposed that some one else 
had secured the rest of it during the years between his two visits. 
As, however, years passed and no one published the manuscript, he 
returned to St. Catherine’s in 1859. He spent some days there, but 
found no trace of the treasure for which he searched. He had 
given up hope and was planning to leave the next day, when, on 
returning from a walk with the steward, that official invited 
Tischendorf to his cell. There, resuming a conversation which 
had been interrupted, the steward said: “I, too, have read a Sep- 
tuagint,” and taking from a corner of the room a large volume 
wrapped in a red cloth, he placed in Tischendorf’s hands the long- 
looked-for treasure. 

This precious volume, written during the first half of the fourth 
century, was afterward removed to Alexandria, and later to 
Petrograd. It has been published in facsimile. It contained the 
parts of the Old Testament in Greek, which Tischendorf had not 
previously found, the whole of the New Testament, the Epistle 
of Barnabas which was not previously known in Greek, and a 
part of the Shepherd of Hermas. The Manuscript has since been 
studied by many scholars and is now recognized as one of the two 
oldest manuscripts of the Bible known; the only other which rivals 
it in age and importance is the ‘Vatican Manuscript,” which was 
already in the Vatican Library at Rome before the first catalogue 


1 See, for example, C. R. Gregory, The Canon and Text of the New Testament, New York, 1907, 
p. 329, ff., or Vincent’s History of New Testament Textual Criticism, New York, 1899, p. 16, ff. 


THE BIBLE AND EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE 527 


of that library was made in 1475 a. p. It has been proved by 
Westcott and Hort that the text of the Sinaitic Manuscript is 
more correct than that of any other known manuscript except the 
one in the Vatican just mentioned.1 

7. Other New Testament Manuscripts. 

In ways somewhat similar to that by which Tischendorf dis- 
covered the famous Sinaitic Manuscript many others have been 
brought to light. To speak of them all is not the province of a 
book like this; that belongs to technical works on New Testament 
criticism. It is enough to say that more than a hundred uncial or 
large-letter manuscripts, such as were written before the tenth 
century, have been catalogued and studied, and more than three 
thousand cursive manuscripts, such as were written after the tenth 
century, and the number is being increased every year.2,- Through 
such research the text of the New Testament rests on a much more 
secure basis than that of any other book in the world. 

8. The Washington Manuscript. 

While it is impossible to speak in detail of the great mass of 
manuscripts, there is one that must be singled out for a word of 
description and comment. It is a manuscript of the Gospels, 
found by Copts or Arabs in Egypt and bought, near Cairo, by the 
late Mr. Freer, of Detroit, on December 19, 1906, together with 
a number of other valuable manuscripts, both Greek and Coptic. 
Internal evidence shows that this beautifully written book was 
made during the fourth century of our era, or, at the latest, early 
in the fifth. Each Gospel is preceded by a picture of the evangelist 
who wrote it. The manuscript contains an excellent text and 
takes high rank as an authority in textual criticism. It has been 
published in facsimile by H. A. Sanders, of Michigan University.? 
The original has been placed in Washington as the capital city of 
our country; hence it is called the Washington Manuscript. 

9. The Curetonian and Sinai Syriac. 

In 1842 Canon William Cureton found among some Syriac manu- 
scripts that had been brought a short time before to the British 
Museum from the Nitrian Desert, in Egypt, fragments of an old 


1 Westcott and Hort, New Testament in the Original Greek, Vol. II, 1882. 

2 For fuller details see C. R. Gregory’s Pyzlegomena to Tischendorf’s Novum Testamente Graece, 
editio octava critica major, Leipzig, 1884; ©. R. Gregory, Textkritik zum Neuen Testament, 2 
vols., Leipzig, 1900-1902; Kenyon, Handbook of New Testament Textual Criticism, London, 1912, 
end H. von Soden’s Schriften des Neuen Testament, Gottingen, 1913. 

3 See Facsimile of the Washington Manuscript of the Four Gospels in the Freer Collection, Uni- 
versity of Michigan, 1912; also H. A. Sanders, The New Testament Manuscripts of the Freer Collec- 
tion, New York, 1912. 


528 ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


copy of the Gospels. The manuscript containing them had been 
written about 450 A. p., and the translation which it contained had 
been made much earlier. Fifty years later, in 1892, two English 
women, Agnes Smith Lewis and her twin-sister, Margaret Dunlop 
Gibson, discovered in the Convent of St. Catherine on Mount 
Sinai a Syriac manuscript which contained all of the four 
Gospels except about eight pages. This manuscript had been 
written in the fifth or sixth century and had been used as a Bible 
for about two hundred years, when it became shabby. The writing 
was then scratched off, and, as parchment was expensive, some 
lives of female saints had been written over it. A manuscript 
thus used a second time is called a palimpsest. In time the book 
became too worn for this to be read and it was cast aside. When 
found the leaves were so stuck together that they had to be steamed 
apart. The parchment, when treated chemically, revealed the 
original writing. By means of these two discoveries a translation 
of the Gospels has been recovered that was made in the second 
century, two hundred years before any extant Greek manuscript 
of the Gospels was written.! 

10. The Old Egyptian Versions. 

Christianity was carried to Egypt earlier than to the Syriac- 
speaking country of Upper Mesopotamia, and early in the second 
century the Bible was translated into various dialects of Coptic, 
as the Egyptian language of that period is called. Remains of two 
of these versions, the Sahidic of Upper Egypt and the Basmuric 
of the Nile Delta, have been found and studied with some com- 
pleteness, while fragments of versions in the dialects of Middle 
Egypt are also known. 

Some Coptic manuscripts have been known for a long time, but 
in 1883 nine thousand leaves of Coptic manuscripts were dis- 
covered in the ruins of the White Monastery between Assuit and 
Thebes, 250 miles south of Cairo. Among these were parts of the 
oldest Coptic Bibles ever seen. Discoveries of Coptic manuscripts 
have frequently been made since. Before 1885 the Borgian Museum 
at Rome possessed a considerable collection of Sahidic manuscripts 
of the Old Testament. The first Coptic manuscript of any con- 
siderable part of the Old Testament reached the British Museum 
in 1896, but by 1905 that museum contained fifty-nine fragments 


1See William Cureton, Remains of a Very Ancient Recension of the Four Gospels in Syriac, 
London, 1858; and A. S. Lewis, The Old Syriac Gospels, London, 1910. 


: 
. 
{ 
. 


THE BIBLE AND EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE 529 


of the Old Testament in Coptic and eighty-three fragments of 
eighty-three different copies of the New Testament. Many more 
have come to light in recent years. The Library of J. Pierpont 
Morgan in New York possesses an important collection of Coptic 
manuscripts which are being published by the distinguished Coptic 
scholar, H. Hyvernat, of the Catholic University of America at 
Washington. Important Coptic manuscripts were purchased by 
the late Mr. Freer, of Detroit, in 1906 and now form part of the 
Freer collection. 

Few of these Coptic manuscripts contain the whole Bible, and 
gaps in the larger manuscripts have to be filled out from scattered 
leaves of papyrus gathered from here and there. Editing is, ac- 
cordingly, in the case of a Coptic text, a difficult task. It has, how- 
ever, been performed for much of the Old Testament by the Italian 
scholar, A. Ciasca,! and for most of the New Testament by the 
English scholar, George Horner. Others have also doae valuable 
work in this field.? 

As the Egyptian versions are very old, their importance is great. 
The Egyptian translations of the Old Testament were made from 
the Greek text of the Septuagint. The importance of this trans- 
lation may be illustrated by the fact that in certain books of the 
Old Testament, such as Job, Origen, who died about 258 A. D., 
marked certain passages in his great Hexapla as doubtful. These 
passages are usually omitted in the Sahidic version, which thus 
confirms Origen and bears witness to the existence of a shorter 
text. 

It is announced by the British School of Archeology in Egypt 
that the School has come into possession of a copy of the Gospel 
of John in Coptic which is earlier than any other known Coptic 
Gospel. It is being prepared for publication. 

11. The Diatessaron of Tatian. 

Tatian, an Assyrian disciple of Justin Martyr, was the first to 
weave the four Gospels into one continuous story of the life of 
Christ. He called it “Diatessaron.” As he died about 170 a. D., 
he accomplished this before that date. The work was so popular 
in the Syrian churches that for a time it supplanted the separate 


1 A. Ciasca, Sacrorum Bibliorum Fragmenta Copto-Sahidica Musei Borgiana, 2 vols., Rome, 1885- 
1889. 
2 The Coptic Version of the New Testament in the Northern Dialect, 4 vols., London, 1898-1905; 
The Coptic Verion of the New Testament in the Southern Dialect, London, 1911-1920. 

3B. g., W. H. Worrell, The Coptic Manuscripts of the Freer Collection, New York, 1923. 


530 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Gospels. It was finally, however, put under the ban and disap- 
peared. As references to it were found in Christian literature, 
scholars regarded its recovery as important. Radical critics of the 
Gospels had claimed that it could not have included material from 
the Gospel of John, as they did not believe that that Gospel was in 
use so early. In 1883 Ciasca discovered an Arabic version of it in 
the Vatican Library at Rome, and it was found that it began with 
the Prologue to the Gospel of John and is compiled from our four 
canonical Gospels and only these.! 

12. The Gospel and Revelation of Peter. 

From the earliest list of New Testament books that has come 
down to us, the so-called Canon of Muratori, which was written 
about the end of the second century, we learn that an Apocalypse 
or Book of Revelation was attributed to the Apostle Peter. Several 
of the Fathers make allusion to it and quote bits of it—altogether 
about eight lines were known in that way, and it was said to have 
contained about 300 lines of the average length of a line of Homer. 

We also learn from the Church Historian, Eusebius, that the 
sect of the Docete used a Gospel about 190-200 A. D., which was 
called The Gospel of Peter. In 1886-1887 about two-thirds of the 
Apocalypse and twelve short chapters from the Gospel—chapters 
dealing with the Passion and Resurrection of Christ—were found 
in the same tomb at Akhmim in Egypt in which the Greek extract 
from Enoch, mentioned above, was found. Neither of these are 
genuine writings of St. Peter, but they are interesting as showing 
some of the literature which was prized by this sect in the second 
century. The Gospel of Peter is clearly based on our four canonical 
Gospels, but changes are made here and there to make the language 
teach the peculiar doctrines of the Docetists. The Apocalypse 
describes in lurid terms the tortures of the lost, and is believed to 
have been one of the sources of Dante for the material of his In- 
ferno. 

13. The Odes of Solomon. 

About 1907 Dr. J. Rendel Harris acquired some paper manuscripts 
written in Syriac, which came to him from the vicinity of the Tigris 
river. Two years later, in examining some of them, which he had 
thought of little importance, he found that one contained some 


1See A. Ciasca, Tatiant Evangeliorum Harmonie Arabice, Rome, 1888, and J. H. Hill, The 
Earliest Life of Christ, being the Diatessaron of Tatian, Edinburgh, 1904. 

2See The Gospel According to Peter and the Revelation of Peter, by J. Armitage Robinson and 
M. R. James, London, 1892; also H. B. Swete, The Gospel of Peter, London, 1893. 


THE BIBLE AND EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE 531 


Christian hymns ascribed to Solomon.! Internal evidence indi- 
cates that they come from the first century, and that they were 
probably used in the Apostolic Age. Scholars are divided as to 
whether they were originally written by a Christian or whether a 
Christian expanded them from a Jewish original. In either case 
they reveal to us a profound type of Christian devotion and are a 
most welcome addition to knowledge. 

14. Sub-Apostolic Writings. 

To extend this catalogue of archeological contributions into the 
domain of Patristic literature would carry us too far. Brief men- 
tion of some of the most noteworthy additions to the literature 
of the second century may not, however, be out of place. Until 
1859 the Shepherd of Hermas, a work composed probably about 
140 A. D., was known to us only through translations and quota- 
tions. In that year Tischendorf found a part of the text in the 
Sinaitic manuscript already described. In 1888 the rest of the text 
was supplied from a manuscript on Mount Athos, and parts have 
since been found in Egyptian papyri.? 

The same Sinaitic manuscript contained the Episile of Barnabas, 
the Greek text of which was previously unknown.* This latter, 
attributed to the Apostle Barnabas, and written, as Lightfoot be- 
lieved, in the reign of Vespasian, before 79 A.D., was in some churches 
regarded for a time as a part of the New Testament canon. It is 
now practically certain that Barnabas did not write it. A few 
years later Bishop Bryennios found another copy of it in the Li- 
brary of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. 

Bound up with the manuscript of Barnabas just mentioned, 
Bryennios also found a most precious manual entitled, “The 
Teaching of the Twelve Apostles’*—a work previously unknown. 
Although this work consisted of less than ten short pages, its 
publication in 1883 caused a sensation. It is a manual of early 
Christian practice, believed to have been written between 110 and 
125 A. D., and gives us as no other work does a cross-section of the 
life of the Christian Church of that time. The monarchical episco- 


1See J. R. Harris, Odes and Psalms of Solomon, Cambridge, 1909, and J. R. Harris and A. 
Mingana, Odes and Psalms of Solomon, 2 vols., Manchester, 1916-1920. 

2See Gregory, Canon and Text of the New Testament, p. 330, and A. Harnack, Geschichte der 
Alichristlichen Literatur bis Eusebius, Leipsig, 1893, I, 49 ff. 

3 See Gregory, ibid. ° 

4See R. D. Hitchcock and F. Brown, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, New York, 1884; 
P. Schaff, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, New York, 1885; and J. R. Harris, The Teaching of 
the Twelve Apostles, Baltimore, 1887. 


532 ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


pate was not yet fully established, and Christians were largely 
dependent upon traveling “prophets” for their preaching. An 
order or class of ‘‘widows” performed the functions of district 
nurses. Directions are given for baptism, prayer and fasting, for 
the celebration of the Eucharist, and for a pure walk in life. 

Another important discovery, that of the Apology of Aristides, 
written between 130 and 160 A. D., was made in 1889 by Dr. J. R. 
Harris in the Convent of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. It is one 
of the important defenses of Christianity addressed by early 
Christians to Roman emperors, and, like every piece of Christian 
literature, gives welcome and inspiring glimpses into their life.! 

Were we to permit ourselves to wander farther from the Apos- 
tolic Age, attention might be called to many other documents, but 
we must not deviate too far from the purpose of this book, which is 
to illustrate the Bible. 

15. Egyptian Papyri. 

Mention has been made a number of times in the preceding pages 
to Egyptian papyri, but in order to emphasize their importance a 
word more is necessary. Papyri are found in tombs from every 
period of Egyptian history. Those, however, that are written in 
the older Egyptian scripts are only occasionally of interest to the 
Biblical scholar. At numerous points, however, papyri from 
Ptolemaic and Roman times have been found which are often of 
the highest interest to the Biblical student. At three points in 
particular papyri of this character have been found—at Tebtunis, 
El-Hibeh, and Oxyrhincos. At Tebtunis it was accidentally dis- 
covered that the embalmed sacred crocodiles, which were found in 
large numbers, were stuffed with papyri which the Egyptians had 
thrown into their waste-baskets. ‘At Oxyrhincos Grenfell and Hunt 
found the places on the border of the desert where, during the early 
centuries of the Christian Era, the inhabitants of a neighboring 
town had emptied their waste-baskets. Thousands of precious 
documents have in this way been recovered. Many of them con- 
tain fragments of Greek literature; some contain the text of dif- 
ferent parts of the Bible, but many relate to all phases of the com- 
mon life. They are letters, tax receipts, depositions, marriage 
certificates, law-suits, etc. They introduce us intimately to the 
life of ancient times. 


1See The A pology of Aristides, edited and translated by J. R. Harris, with an Introduction by 
J. Armitage Robinson, Cambridge, 1893. 


THE BIBLE AND EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE 533 


How important such documents may be for some phases of 
Biblical study has already been shown by the material quoted 
from them in Chapters XXVIII, XXIX, and XXX. They are 
equally important for the study of the language of the New Testa- 
ment. The New Testament is written in a dialect which differs 
much from the dialects employed in classical Greek literature, and, 
until the discovery of these papyri, there were many obscure 
points in the grammar and vocabulary of the New Testament. 
The Egyptian papyri turn out to be written in the same dialect, 
and these thousands of new documents afford numerous parallels 
to words and constructions which were difficult or obscure, so that 
it is not too much to say that, since their discovery, New Testa- 
ment grammar and lexicography have taken on a new phase. 
Archeology has thus contributed much to a branch of Biblical 
study that cannot well be illustrated in a book like this.? 

1 See A. Deissmann, New Light on the New Testament, Edinburgh, 1907; also his Biblical Studies, 
Edinburgh, 1901; also his Licht vom Osten 4te Auf., Tiibingen, 1923, translated into English from 
the 2d edition as Light from the Ancient East, London and New York, 1910; J. H. Moulton, 
Grammar of New Testament Greek, Edinburgh, 1906 to the present; A. T. Robertson, A Grammar 
of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research, 4th ed., New York, 1922; P. M. 
Meyer, Griechische Texte aus Agypt, Berlin, 1916; Moulton and Milligan, Vocabulary of the 
Greek Testament Illustrated from the Papyri and Other Non-Literary Sources, London, 1914-1920 
(still unfinished); Abbott-Smith, Manual Lexicon of the New Testament, 1921. The original texts 


of the papyri are scattered through many publications. The largest single series of them is the 
volumes of the Egypt Exploration Fund—Greco-Roman Branch. 


APPENDIX I 


THE PLACE OF THE AMORITES IN THE CIVILIZATION 
OF WESTERN ASIA 


THEORY THAT THE AMORITES, A WEST SEMITIC PEOPLE, ESTABLISHED AN EMPIRE 
IN THE FIFTH PRE-CHRISTIAN MILLENNIUM WITH ITS CAPITAL AT ALEPPO, AND THAT 


BABYLONIANS AND EGYPTIANS BORROWED FROM THEIR CIVILIZATION. REASONS FOR 
REJECTING THE THEORY. THE AmoritTes, East Semites Wuo Carriep East 


Semitic CIVILIZATION TO THE WeEstT. THEORY THAT THE BIBLICAL TRADITIONS 
ORIGINATED AMONG THE AMORITES RATHER THAN AMONG THE BABYLONIANS. 
REASONS FOR REGARDING THIS AS UNFOUNDED. 


Proressor A. T. Clay, of Yale, has, in four noteworthy volumes, 
entitled respectively Amurru, the Home of the Northern Semites, 
1909; The Empire of the Amorites, 1919; A Hebrew Deluge Story 
in Cuneiform, 1922; and The Origin of the Biblical Traditions, 
1923, developed an original and striking theory of the antiquity 
of the Amorites and of their place in the civilization of western 
Asia. The wide publicity given to the theory and the use made of 
it in certain quarters lead the present writer to think that some 
notice of it should be taken in a book like this. 

We know from Num. 21: 21-31 that in the days of Moses a 
kingdom of the Amorites existed east of the Dead Sea—a kingdom 
which the Hebrews conquered, and we learn from the El-Amarna 
letters that in the fourteenth century B. c. a kingdom of the same 
people also existed in the territory afterward occupied by the tribe 
of Asher—the territory extending from Mount Carmel to the re- 
gion between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon Mountains. There 
is also reason to believe that the earliest wave of Semitic migration 
which overspread Palestine was Amorite; (see above, Pt. I, Ch. 
V. § 3). Professor Clay, in the first of the books mentioned, 
held that the Amorites originally inhabited the whole country 
extending from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates—a theory 
that is probably true. In the second of the books he contended 
that the Amorites were to be identified with the inhabitants of 
Mari, a city on the Euphrates which about 3500 B. c. produced a 
dynasty which for a time ruled Babylonia;.that they therefore 
built up an empire in the fourth millennium before Christ; that 

535 


536 APPENDIX I 


they possessed a very high culture, and that from them all Semitic 
civilization radiated. In this book Amurru, or Amorite-land, is 
made to extend down the Euphrates nearly to Babylon. 

To make clear the bearing of this theory, it should be noted 
that the languages of the Semitic peoples fall into three groups, 
each of which possesses marked characteristics. We call them the 
South Semitic, the East Semitic, and the West Semitic languages. ~ 
As we first learned of the Amorites through the Old Testament, a 
West Semitic book, it has been assumed that they were West 
Semites. Professor Clay has accordingly assumed that the Amorite 
Empire, which he believes he has discovered, was West Semitic, 
that from its language Hebrew was developed, and that West 
Semitic civilization is as old as or older than East Semitic. 

In the third of the books enumerated above a fragment of a 
Babylonian account of the deluge was published, and, because it 
contained some words which had not been found in other Baby- 
lonian texts, but which do occur in Hebrew, Professor Clay en- 
titled his book A Hebrew Deluge Story in Cuneiform. He has since 
admitted that Hebrew did not exist at that time and explains that 
he meant by it the Amorite language out of which Hebrew was de- 
veloped. At the most there were but about twenty of these words 
and, as will presently be pointed out, their presence is best ex- 
plained in another way. 

In Professor Clay’s last book he makes a brave attempt, con- 
sistently with his previous theories, to prove that the traditions of 
the Creation, Eden, the Flood, etc., were not borrowed by the West 
Semites from the East Semites, but were developed among the 
first-mentioned group or came into their possession from other 
sources. He claims that there were no migrations of East Semites — 
from Babylonia to West Semitic territory, but that all the migrations 
were the other way—that the West Semites constituted a large 
element of the Babylonian population; that the East Semites did 
not influence the West Semites, but that the influence was alto- 
gether in the other direction. In developing this thesis Professor 
Clay has brought together considerable new material and has thrown 
welcome light on a number of subsidiary problems. Some of his 
supposed facts will not, however, bear critical examination; a 
number of his arguments are too exclusively philological to bear 
the weight put upon them; while he has left out of consideration 
altogether other facts which have an important bearing on the 


APPENDIX I S37 


questions discussed. When his valid facts are interpreted in the 
light of these other and pertinent facts, the resulting conclusions 
are quite different from those which Professor Clay has drawn. 

It is not possible here to discuss all the philological details in- 
volved; the writer is doing that, as far as seems necessary, in an 
article in the Journal of the American Oriental Society. An at- 
tempt is made here only to make clear to the general reader the 
principal reasons why it is believed that Professor Clay’s revolu- 
tionary conclusions cannot be accepted. 

In the first place it should be noted that many of his arguments 
consist of the supposed identity of deities and cities because they 
are designated by what he takes to be the same epithet or the same 
name. Such an argument is never of value unless confirmed by 
other evidence. By itself it never does more than to establish a 
possibility. For example, he finds that a god that is called in 
Sumerian dingir kur-gal, “god of the great mountain,” is defined 
in one passage as dingir mar-iu, “god of the west-land” or “Amurru’’; 
he therefore concludes that every time a god is called “god of the 
great mountain,” the god of the Amorites is referred to. This may 
or may not be correct for any given case. There were many gods 
in Babylonia—gods of tribes who had some time lived near moun- 
tains which seemed to them great—and it is unsafe to assume with- 
out confirmation from other kinds of evidence that in such names 
kur-gal always referred to the same great mountain. 

In dealing with evidence of this kind Professor Clay has, in one 
crucial instance, built upon a supposed equivalence which turns 
out to be unreal. In early Babylonian inscriptions from about 
3200-2350 B. c., we find references to a place called Mar which had 
a goddess called Nin-Mar or “Lady of Mar.” All that we know of 
this place indicates that it was situated in southern Babylonia 
near the city of Lagash, the modern Telloh.? In ancient Sumerian 
the Amorite land which lay along the coast of the Mediterranean 
Sea was called Mar-tu, “the land where the chariot (of the sun) 
goes down.” Now it so happens that ancient Babylonian and As- 
syrian scribes, like their modern. successors, sometimes employed 
abbreviations, especially when they had to write the same thing 
a great many times. In copying some astrological texts in which 


1 Vol, XLV, 1925. 
2 The various possibilities connected with this land of Mar are fully discussed in the article 
cited in the preceding note. 


538 APPENDIX I 


the name of the Amorite land (Mar-tu) occurred a great many 
times, the scribes of Ashurbanipal abbreviated it, in a number of 
cases, to Mar. This was in the seventh century before Christ, 
when the Mar spoken of above had disappeared from history for 
fifteen hundred years. Moreover, the context in which the abbre- 
viations occurred made it clear in every instance that the Mediter- 
ranean coast-land was referred to. When, a few years ago, some 
fragmentary copies of parts of these same astrological texts were 
found in Elam, which, in place of the abbreviation Mar, had the 
reading A-mu-ra-im, Professor Clay took this for evidence that 
Mar, like Mar-tu, was another name for Amurru, or Amorite land, 
quite overlooking the fact that the one was on the Mediterranean 
shore and that the only other evidence we have of the existence of 
the other comes from the opposite end of Babylonia near the 
Persian Gulf. On the basis of this identification he proceeded to 
regard Ma-tr or Ma-ri, the name of a city on the Euphrates north 
of Babylonia, the pronunciation of whose name sounds much like 
Mar, as another name for Amorite; then, as a dynastic tablet gives 
us the name of some kings of Ma-ri who ruled about 3500 B. c. or 
earlier, he confidently affirmed that the Amorites possessed a 
flourishing kingdom in the fourth millennium before the Christian 
Era. 

This whole structure rests on too slender a basis. The scribes of 
Ashurbanipal were only employing abbreviations; they never iden- 
tified Mar and Mar-tu, which were quite different places situ- 
ated, so far as we are informed, at opposite ends of the Babylonian. 
world. The names Mar and Ma-ri are not equivalent, since in 
Sumerian they mean very different things and apply to widely 
different places. Moreover, the names of the kings of Mari in the 
fourth pre-Christian millennium were not Semitic, as they would 
have been had they been Amorite, but Sumerian. Professor Clay’s 
whole proof of the great pa te of the Amorites turns out, there- 
fore, to be unreal. 

It should also be noted that he claims that Aleppo was the cen- 
ter of Amorite civilization in the fifth millennium, that the god 
Tammuz, a mythical king of Erech, married the goddess Ishtar, 
called, he believes, Ashirta at Aleppo, whom he takes for human 
beings, that Ishtar was a dissolute woman who was very popular, 
that they were deified, and that from here and from such beginnings 
the Ishtar-Ashtoreth-Astarte cult, against which the Hebrew 


APPENDIX I 539 


Prophets so valiantly struggled, spread over the whole Semitic 
world. The writer has pointed out elsewhere that this theory rests 
on no real evidence and against it is positive evidence to the con- 
trary from the fields of philology, history, comparative mythology, 
and religion. It does not seem necessary to go into details here; 
those who desire them will find them in the journal mentioned.’ In 
reality there is no evidence to show that the Amorites were present 
in Babylonia, at Mari, or that they were at Aleppo earlier than the 
time of the Babylonian dynasty of Agade, 2839-2642 B. c. A 
Sumerian apparently was its ruler in the reign of the second king of 
the dynasty; it is not until the reign of Naram-Sin, its fourth king, 
that its ruler bore a Semitic name. The time when the Amorites 
took possession of Aleppo can be fixed with some probability as 
about 2700 B. c. ~ 

Professor Clay has proved that Uri, the old Sumerian name for 
Agade, may be equivalent to Amurru, the Akkadian name of the 
Amorites. This raises the question whether the dynasty of Agade, 
the first great Semitic dynasty in Babylonia, was not Amorite. 
Professor Clay has rightly refrained from claiming that it 1s, for 
the form of the proper names of the Akkadians, as the Semitic 
Babylonians are called, is different from the characteristic Amorite 
form of proper name. The historical evidence seems to indicate 
that the Amorites about 2700 B. c. entered this region as savages 
from Arabia. We believe them to be savages because of a Baby- 
lonian text from Nippur in the Pennsylvania Museum which says 
of the Amorite: 

“On the mountain the weapon is his companion, 
To catch meat he crosses over the mountain, 
What is good he does not know; 
He eats uncooked meat, 
While he lives he has no house, 


His dead companion he does not bury, 
In the land (?) his protector (?) is the god Amurru.”? 


Were these Amorites East Semites or West Semites? Professor 
Clay assumes, as many scholars have done before him, that they 
were West Semites because we first learned of their existence 
from the Old Testament. That is, however, an inference which 
seems to be erroneous. Every scrap of writing which we have 
from Amorites, even from those who lived in the West, is in the 
Akkadian language and the cuneiform script. Moreover, this 


1The article in the Journal of the American Oriental Society already mentioned. 
2Published by Chiera in Sumerian Religious Texts, 1924. 


540 APPENDIX I 


language and script were for centuries employed as the lingua 
Franca, or the language of international communication, in western 
Asia. It was so employed until it was succeeded by the Aramaic 
language and script. This last-mentioned language came to be 
employed for the purpose mentioned because after about 1000 
B. C. the Arameans were more widely scattered over western Asia 
than any other people, so that their language was more generally 
understood. The inescapable inference is that Akkadian was so 
employed in the earlier period because it was the language of the 
Amorites who in that earlier time inhabited these same regions and 
similarly made their speech and script the most widely understood 
of any in that region. a 

We conclude then that the Amorites were East Semites, closely 
akin to the Akkadians, who came in a wave from Arabia later than 
the Akkadians, tried to penetrate Babylonia, but, finding it too 
fully occupied, turned westward and overran the country from the 
Euphrates to the Mediterranean, and then swept southward to the 
border of Egypt. They learned the arts of civilization from the 
Akkadians, adopting the script which the Akkadians had learned 
from the Sumerians, and applying it to their Amorite language 
which was almost identical with Akkadian. The script and the arts 
of civilization which they had learned, and their East Semitic gods, 
they carried to the West, where these gods have been mistaken for 
West Semitic. Professor Clay’s investigations have thus driven 
us to a realization of the fact that West Semitic civilization, in- 
cluding the Hebrew, contains even a larger East Semitic element 
than we had supposed. 

The feature of Professor Clay’s work which is of particular in- 
terest to students of the Bible is his contention that the accounts 
of the Creation, the Garden of Eden, the Fall of Man, and the Flood 
did not originate among the East Semites, but among the West 
Semites. His argument for this theory he styles “fourfold”—1. 
The originality of the Amorite civilization, which he claims in- 
fluenced both Egypt and Babylonia and was not influenced by ~ 
them. 2. The contention that the geographical and climatic con- 
ditions of Babylonia do not, as others have supposed, account for 
the origin of the accounts of the Creation, Eden, and the Flood. 
3. The argument from the names of deities and of persons. 4. 
Linguistic and stylistic considerations. 

The first of these arguments has already been considered. It 


APPENDIX I 541 


has been shown above that the Amorites borrowed their civili- 
zation from Babylonia. More complete proof of this point may be 
found in the writer’s article already referred to. 

As to the argument from climate, it should be said that Professor 
Clay has corrected some misconceptions concerning the climate of 
Babylonia that some of his predecessors had entertained. He 
is wrong, however, in thinking that, because the annual over- 
flow of the Tigris and Euphrates is caused by melting snows in 
distant Armenia, and because the rainfall in Babylonia is now slight, 
that the Babylonian accounts of the Creation and Flood could not 
have been produced there. The annual climate contains, as that 
of the Amorite country does not, all the elements of those stories, 
and, though some scholars had tried to explain the origin of them 
in ways too literal, the fact remains that no other country known 
to us is so well fitted to be their birthplace. All that Clay’s argu- 
ments on this point accomplish is to show us that the imaginations 
of the men who constructed the tales were more creative than we 
had supposed. Moreover, in the case of the Garden of Eden, 
Clay’s theory is out of harmony with the Biblical evidence. Gen- 
esis 2: 10-14 clearly places Eden in southern Babylonia. It is 
there said that the river Pishon “compasseth the whole land of 
Havilah,” 7. e., Arabia. By the Pishon, then, the Persian Gulf, 
Indian Ocean, and Red Sea are meant. The point where the 
Tigris, Euphrates, and Persian Gulf met in ancient times was 
southern Babylonia. In Babylonian inscriptions the Persian Gulf 
is often called ‘‘the lower sea, where the sun rises,” 7. ¢., the 
eastern sea. This explains why it is said in Gen. 11: 2, they 
journeyed “from the east”! before building the Tower of Babel. 
Ezekiel seems to have called southern Babylonia Eden. In ch. 
27 : 23, in enumerating the places that had traded with Tyre, he 
begins at Haran, then mentions Canneh (a corruption of Calneh 
of Gen. 10:10 identified by the Talmud with Nippur), Eden, 
and the traffickers of Sheba. He places Eden in the series exactly 
where southern Babylonia lies. 

In any event, there is nothing to connect the origin of these ac- 
counts with the land of the Amorites. The conditions there are 
such that the dearth of water, not the struggle with it, is the im- 
pressive thing. 


1 The translation of this Hebrew phrase “East” or ‘Eastward,’ adopted by some scholars, 
while possible, is of doubtful correctness. 


542 APPENDIX I 


Professor Clay’s argument from the names of deities and persons 
rests on the assumption that all such names found both in Baby- 
Jonia and the West are West Semitic and have been carried from 
the West to Babylonia. Thus the names of the gods Adad (or 
Hadad) and Dagan are found both in Babylonia and in the West, 
therefore, he infers, they are West Semitic. In reality, there is 
not a shred of proof that they existed in the West before they 
existed in the East. We find their names in Babylonia from 1000 
to 1500 years earlier than we find them in the West. It is quite 
as legitimate, therefore, to assume that they are East Semitic 
deities whose names were carried to the West by worshipers who 
migrated from the East. The question must be decided not 
by the mere occurrence of the names, but by other considera- 
tions. Since the Amorites employed an East Semitic language, it 
is probable that the names are East Semitic. In the case of the god 
Nabu or Nebo, it seems certain that the migration was from East 
to West, since the name is found only at one shrine in Babylonia 
and at two in Palestine. Just as Irishmen have carried the name 
Dublin from Ireland and planted it in fifteen places on the American 
continent, and just as Englishmen have carried the name of the 
city of York and planted it in twenty-two places in America, so 
emigrants from Babylonia carried the name Nebo. Professor 
Clay’s argument from personal names similarly assumes the very 
point to be proved. 

His fourth group of arguments are too technical to be taken up 
in detail here. One who desires such treatment is referred to the 
article in the Journal of the American Oriental Society already 
mentioned. It will be sufficient to point out that the various 
Semitic languages were all offshoots of a parent stem, just as 
Italian, French, Spanish, and Portuguese are all offshoots of Latin. 
Some words in the Semitic languages are so nearly alike in all of 
them that they are certainly survivals from the primitive Semitic 
parent speech. On the other hand, some developments are found 
in each of the languages peculiar to that language. It is well known — 
to Semitic scholars that such developments frequently occurred 
because of the transposition of consonants. It sometimes happens 
that for a time the transposed form was used in a language side 
by side with the original form and then finally supplanted it. A 
recognition of this fact explains some of the linguistic phenomena 
which Professor Clay regards as borrowings on the part of Ak- 


APPENDIX I 543 


kadian from West Semitic. Older forms, which he finds in the Baby- 
lonian Creation and Deluge stories, but which died out in Later 
Akkadian, are found, for example, in Hebrew, a West Semitic 
language. The case is analogous to that of many words which occur 
in the writings of Shakespeare and other Elizabethan writers. 
They are still employed in Scotland and the United States, though 
now no longer in good use in England. It would be quite erroneous 
to argue from these facts that the Elizabethan writers borrowed 
these words from the Scotch or from the dialect of the United 
States. 

We conclude, in view of the evidence available at present, that 
the Amorites were not West Semites, but East Semites. They 
were not identical with the Akkadians, but closely akin to them. 
They migrated from Arabia later than the Akkadians and, failing 
to penetrate Babylonia in large numbers, turned westward and oc- 
cupied the territory of Syria and Palestine. Those in Babylonia 
imparted to their kinsmen of the West something of their civiliza- 
tion, which became the foundation of the Levantine culture of 
later times. The discovery of specimens of the Amorite language 
in a West Semitic dialect and script would prove these conclusions 
erroneous, but at present the available evidence seems to justify 


them. 


APPENDIX II 


THE LATEST ADDITIONS TO OUR KNOWLEDGE 
(Appearing first in Fifth Edition) 


I 
TUTANKHAMEN’S COFFIN 
(Addition to Part I, Chapter I, § 6, (7), p. 30) 


Mr. Howarp CaArTER has opened the sarcophagus of Tutank- 
hamen and is reported to have found within a magnificent coffin 
of gold. While this discovery reveals additional details of Tut- 
ankhamen’s splendor, it in no way modifies our estimate of his 
importance. 


II 
RECENT EXPLORATION IN BABYLONIA 
(Addition to Part I, Chapter IT, p. 51) 


During 1924-25 and 1925-26 the excavation at Ukheimir (Kish) 
was carried on by Captain Mackay, but still without the discovery 
of anything of especial importance to the student of the Bible. 
In The Excavation at Kish, Paris, 1924 (which did not reach the 
writer until the summer of 1925), Langdon has published the 
inscription which Mackay believed to be the oldest writing known. 
While some of the characters are more nearly pictures than the 
forms of the same characters in other known Babylonian inscrip- 
tions, others of them are, as Langdon admits, less so. While a 
very interesting bit of very early writing, the claim to be the earliest 
example of the art known can hardly be allowed. 

At Ur Mr. Woolley has during the last three seasons continued 
his excavation for the British and the University of Pennsylvania 
Museums. The Ziggurat of the Temple of the Moon god (Nannar 
or Sin) has been explored and a temple of Nin-gal, his consort, 
has also been discovered.! Perhaps the most interesting feature 


1Cf. Museum Journal, Sept., 1926, pp. 245 ff. 
544 


APPENDIX II 545 


of this discovery was a large and well-equipped kitchen adjoining 
the shrine, where there were great ovens for roasting meat and 
also places for cauldrons in which meat could be boiled. The 
discovery recalls vividly the account of the preference of Eli’s 
sons for roast meat instead of boiled, and their attempt to modify 
Israelitish sacrificial customs (1 Sam. 2 : 12-17). 

The most surprising discovery made recently in Mesopotamia 
was, however, made by Professor Edward Chiera of the University 
of Pennsylvania, Annual Professor of the American School of 
Oriental Research in Baghdad, when in 1925 he excavated a 
small tell in the neighborhood of Kirkuk,! working jointly for 
the American School of Oriental Research at Baghdad and for 
the Department of Antiquities of the government of Iraq. Kirkuk 
is on the southeast of ancient Assyria. The mound excavated 
contained the house of a landed proprietor, who lived in the 
ancient city of Nuzi. The house had been destroyed by fire 
when an enemy had captured the city in ancient times. The 
walls, which had been made of stone and mud bricks, were, at 
some points, standing to a height of six or eight feet. It was, 
before its destruction, a manor of the period, and contained about 
a dozen rooms. In the dining room was a triclinium of the type 
which has hitherto been supposed to belong exclusively to the 
ancient Romans. The types of pottery in the house had not 
previously been discovered in Mesopotamia. The owner of the 
house had carried on an extensive business, the records of which 
had been kept in the house. These records were on clay tablets 
written in the Assyrian language. About a thousand of these 
were recovered. Over many of them seals had been rolled while 
they were soft, and the impressions left by these seals revealed 
an art unlike that of either Babylonia or Assyria, but kindred 
in some particulars to that of ancient Elam. It is impossible 
as yet to date with certainty the period from which the tablets 
come. Dr. Chiera thinks it was between 1500 and 1200 B. c., 
but on one of the tablets there is an impression of a seal of Ibi- 
Sin, king of Ur before 2200 B. c., so that the time from which the 
tablets come may be before the year 2000. Such a seal might, 
however, be used by men into whose hands it fell for centuries. 
A study of the tablets shows that the men who wrote them were 
not Assyrians. Though they wrote the Assyrian language, they 

1 See Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 18, pp. 1-5. 


546 APPENDIX II 


wrote and spoke it as foreigners.!_ Dr. Chiera and Dr. Speiser, 
who have studied the philological problem which they present, 
think they belonged to the Hurri,? a people kindred to the Mitanni. 
They would connect them with the Horites of the Bible—a theory 
which may be true, but which as yet lacks corroboration. 

From one of the tablets we learn that the district in which Nuzi 
lay was called Arrapkha. This was the Arrapachitis of Ptolemy 
and the Arpachshad of Gen. 10: 22 and 11: 10-12. Dr. Speiser, 
who, as Annual Professor in the American School of Oriental 
Research in Baghdad, has been making an archeological survey 
of the region during the early months of the present year (1927), 
reports the discovery of very early types of pottery like that found 
at Tell Obeid near Ur, in ancient Elam, and in Asia Minor. These 
discoveries have put in our hands new clues, which, when followed 
up, promise to give us much new light on ancient history and to 
bring into much clearer relief many of the neighbors of the Bab- 
ylonians and Assyrians. 


III 
A CHRONOLOGICAL NOTE 
(Addition to Part I, Chapter II, § 5, (5), p. 57) 


In Volume II of the Oxford Edition of Cuneiform Texts, pp. ii 
and iii, Professor Langdon reports an opinion conveyed to him in 
a letter by the English astronomer, Dr. Fotheringham, that in 
calculating the date to which the observations of the planet Venus 
belong, which are recorded on the tablet quoted in § (5), p. 56f., 
Kugler had made a mistake of fifty-five years at least. If this is 
true the accession year of Ammi-zadugga would be 1921 B. c. 
instead of 1976 8. c., and all the earlier dates, which were cal- 
culated from that, would be fifty-five years too early. Langdon 
himself does not, however, modify the dates in his own book to 
conform to Fotheringham’s calculation. Since the determination 
of these dates depends upon a mathematical calculation of an 
astronomical phenomenon, and the calculations of astronomers 
differ, it should be borne in mind that possibly all the dates of 
Babylonian events earlier than the twentieth century B. C., given 
in this book, may be half a century too early. 

1 See Chiera and Speiser, ““A New Factor in the History of the Ancient East,” in the Annual 


of the American Schools of Oriental Research, Vol. VI, pp. 75-92. 
2 See below p. 547. 


APPENDIX II 547 


IV 
THE LANGUAGES OF THE HITTITES AND THEIR KINSFOLK 
(Addition to Part I, Chapter III, § 3, (10), p. 80) 


The statements concerning the language of the Hittites made 
in the last edition may now be considerably amplified! A study 
of the tablets from Boghazkoi reveals the fact that no less than 
six languages in addition to Sumerian and Akkadian (as the 
Babylonian Semitic is called) are contained in them. The language 
spoken by the ruling dynasty at Boghazkoi (that of Subbiluliuma 
and his successors) was an offshoot of the Indo-European family 
of languages, but in the tablets it is not called Hittite, but Kanish. 
Embedded in these Kanish texts there are eighteen quotations of 
proverbs which are said by the Kanish writers to be in Hittite. 
Scholars call this Proto-Hittite. This real Hittite language is 
clearly not an Indo-European language. The fact is that the 
ruling dynasty represented an Indo-European race that had con- 
quered a non-Indo-European race who were the real Hittites. 

Another dialect, of which about seven hundred words are pre- 
served in the tablets, is the Luyyish—spoken in the city of Luyya 
(see p. 371, § 23). One fragment of a text is bi-lingual—Kanish 
and Luyyish. Luyyish seems, like Kanish, to have been Indo- 
European. 

Still another language, of which the tablets from Boghazkoi 
contain about 3500 lines, is the Hurri (formerly read Harri). 
The Hurri lived to the eastward of the Mitanni, to whom they 
appear to have been closely related. The Hurri language was, as 
these fragments prove, a dialect of the Mitanni, or a closely related 
branch of the same linguistic stock. Although it was formerly 
inferred that the Mitannians were Indo-European from the fact 
that among their gods were Mitra, Varuna, and Indra, gods of 
the Aryans in India, it now appears that only the ruling class in 
Mitanni were of the Indo-European stock, and that they were 
neither numerous enough nor strong enough to impose their language 
on the country as the Indo-Europeans at Boghazkoi did, but spoke 
the language of their non-Indo-European subjects, who were near 
kinsmen of the Hurri. 

Yet another language, represented in the tablets by five ex- 


1 See the articles of Friedrich and Forrer in the Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlinden Gesell- 
schaft, Vol. LXXVI, 153-269, and G. A. Barton, ‘‘The Present Status of the Hittite Problem,” 
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. LXV, 232-243. 


548 APPENDIX II 


tracts, is the Balish. The passages in question are proverbs, 
which contain words identical with words in Kanish and Luyyish. 
Whether they are borrowed words, or whether Balish was really 
an Indo-European tongue, we cannot yet tell. 

Finally in four tablets there are quotations of the Manda 
language. The Manda are said to come from Mitanni-land and 
to have been horse trainers and horse dealers. 

We are now in a position to see that in all probability the great 
mass of the people who were vaguely called Hittites by Biblical 
writers and by the Assyrians were neither Indo-Europeans nor 
Semites. Probably the hieroglyphic Hittite script, which up to 
the present has defied all efforts at successful decipherment, con- 
tains material in more than one non-Indo-European language. 

Hogarth, in a recently published work,! in which he subjects 
the art of the Hittite monuments of northern Syria and Carchemish 
to a critical examination, reaches the conclusion that the cultural 
influences which produced the Hittite art of Euyuk, out of which 
that at Boghazkoi was later developed, and those which pro- 
duced the art of northern Syria radiated from the same centre— 
perhaps from central Asia—and were differently developed in the 
lands to which they were transplanted? The same, he thinks, 
probably holds true of the hieroglyphic Hittite script, though on 
this he recognizes that one must speak with reserve until that 
script is deciphered. 

The discoveries of Professor Chiera at Nuzi (see above, p. 545) 
show that the art of the Hurri was connected with that of ancient 
Elam, while Van der Osten? claims that the art of those Hittites, 
who seem to have been descended from the Proto-Hittites, was 
akin also to that of ancient Elam. 


V. 
MEGIDDO 
(Addition to Part I, Chapter IV, § 5, (2), p. 105) 


The complete excavation of Megiddo has been undertaken by 
the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, under the 


1D. G. Hogarth, The Kings of the Hittites, London, 1926. 

2 Students interested in Hittite art should also make themselves acquainted with L’art Hittite, 
by Edmond Pottier, the first fascicle of which was published in Paris in 1926. While Pottier’s 
knowledge of linguistic facts is not up to date, his reproductions of artistic objects are good. 

3 See American Journal of Archeology, Vol. XXX (1926), pp. 405-417. 


APPENDIX II 549 


direction of Dr. Clarence S. Fisher, a prince of American exca- 
vators. The work is being carried on in the most scientific man- 
ner and it is proposed to explore systematically the whole mound. 
Preparations have been made to continue the work for sixteen 
years. No details of the discoveries since Dr. Fisher undertook 
the work in the autumn of 1925 have yet been published. 


VI 


BALATA, THE ANCIENT SHECHEM 
(Addition to Part I, Chapter IV, § 5, (6), p. 107) 


In the spring and summer of 1926 Professor Sellin resumed the 
excavation at Balata, a little to the northeast of modern Nablous, 
which had been interrupted by the war.! During the progress 
of the work in 1926 the eastern gate of ancient Shechem was dis- 
covered, together with a portion of the massive wall in its vicinity; 
a large palace, the walls of which were massive, a part of them 
being of “cyclopean” masonry (see Fig. 315); a temple which 
the excavator believes to be the temple of Elberith (Jud. 9 : 46) 
(see Fig. 314); and two cuneiform tablets. From the character 
of the potsherds, scarabs, etc., found in connection with these 
various structures, and from the character of the writing on the 
cuneiform tablets, Sellin believes it possible approximately to 
date the various structures. Professor Bohl, of Groningen, who 
has studied the cuneiform tablets, says rightly that they are 
similar in character and contents to those found at El-Amarna.? 
Some of the proper names indicate that the persons mentioned 
were of Hittite stock, which accords with what is said of Hamor 
in Genesis 34. The city walls and the west gate are believed to 
have been built about 1700 B. c.; the east gate about 1500 B. c. 
The palace consists of two portions. The western part seems to 
have been built at the time of the western gate, and the eastern 
part at the time of the eastern gate. The temple was first built 
about 1300 B. c., was renovated about 1200 B. c., and was burned 


1 The account of his pre-war work was published in the Anzeiger der phil.-hist. Klasse der 
Wiener Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1914, Nr. VII, pp. 35 ff. and Nr. XVIII, pp. 204 ff. The 
account of the work of 1926 is published in the Zeitschrift der deutschen Palistina-Vereins, XLIX 
(1926), pp. 231-236 and 304-327, and plates 32-46. 

2 See pp. 36, 64, 329-330, 402, 403. 


550 APPENDIX II 


about 11508. c. Finally loam seems to have been spread over the 
site of the temple about 930 B. c., in the time of Jeroboam I. In 
the temple no signs of the worship of Astarte were found. 


vil 
TELL BEIT MIRSIM 
(Addition to Part I, Chapter IV, § 6, p. 110) 


In the spring of 1926 President M. G. Kyle, of Xenia Theological 
Seminary, and Director Albright, of the American School in 
Jerusalem, led a joint expedition of Xenia Seminary and of the 
School which excavated for eight weeks at Tell Beit Mirsim, 
thirteen miles southwest of Hebron, which they believe to be the 
site of Kirjath-sepher! (Josh. 15 : 15, 16; Jud. 1:11, 12). They 
uncovered a part of the city wall and two important city gates, 
as well as what seems to have been a “high place.” Just inside 
of one of the gates a shaft was sunk to the underlying rock in 
order to study by means of it the stratification of the accumulated 
débris. ‘The city seems to have been attacked and burned five 
times. Three of these devastations appear to have been of a 
serious nature. The site seems to have been first occupied shortly 
before 2000 B. c., though not very strongly fortified. After a 
comparatively brief occupation it was destroyed, but was soon 
rebuilt and surrounded with a much more substantial wall, built 
with a sloping glacis after the manner of many walls of the Ca- 
naanite period. Again the city was destroyed, probably by Amosis 
I of Egypt, who destroyed Sharuhen, only six miles from it, about 
1570 B. c. Again reoccupied during the period of Egyptian 
domination, it was once more destroyed at the beginning of the 
Iron Age, probably by the Israelites, who then rebuilt and occu- 
pied it as described in the Bible. Some centuries later it again 
suffered, this time, perhaps, at the hands of Shishak of Egypt. 
In the immediate vicinity there are excellent wells, which Dr. 
Kyle identifies with ‘‘the upper springs and the nether springs” 
of Josh. 15:19 and Jud. 1:15. While nothing was found to 
clearly prove that the site was that of Kirjath-sepher, it seems 
probable that the theory of the excavators may be right. 


1See Dr. Albright, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 23, and President 
Kyle, Bibliotheca Sacra, Vol. LXXXIII, pp. 378-402. 


APPENDIX II 551 


Vill 
BEISAN! 
(Addition to Part I, Chapter IV, § 13, p. 114) 


For the last two seasons the work at Beisan has been carried 
on under the direction of Mr. Alan Rowe. The most important 
discovery has been a temple of the goddess Ashtoreth, who is so 
often mentioned in the Old Testament. It was built in the time 
of Amenophis III, 1411-1375 3B. c. 


IX 
THE CITY RAAMSES, MENTIONED IN EXODUS 1:11 
(Addition to Part I, Chapter IV, § 13, p. 116) 


The Stele of Ramses II, mentioned in Part I, pp. 115 f., is now 
in the University Museum in Philadelphia. It is shown in Fig. 
316. The text of the inscription which it bears is in a fragmentary 
condition owing to the fact that it was covered with earth for 
centuries, during which the winter rains trickled down through 
the overlying soil and, wherever pebbles in the dirt touched the 
surface of the monument, cavities were worn as these pebbles 
were moved about by the water. Much of the inscription can, 
nevertheless, be made out, and though the writer has not com- 
pleted his study of it, the following facts are clear. ‘The inscrip- 
tion begins with the names of Ramses, and a large part of it is 
filled with his high-sounding titles and with magniloquent state- 
ments of his achievements. He tells how he conquered Asiatics, 
how he fortified Bethshan, and, after an interval, he continues in 
substance: ‘‘As a hawk cries in heaven for the birds and as a 
ravening lion roars for herds, so he overthrew by his might the 
householders, to cut them off from their houses with dirk and 
sword like Re. The elders, bound to place the breath of the un- 
speakable name of the king of Upper and Lower Egypt, who is 
united with the god Mont, upon all lands, were brought to his 
city. Usermaresetepnere, son of Re, Meriamon-Ramses he named 
it as a name immortal over all lands, to glorify the son of Re, 
Meriamon-Ramses.”’ 

The defaced condition of the monument makes a number of 


1See Mr. Rowe’s account of the excavation in the Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Ex- 
ploration Fund, April, 1927, pp. 68-84. 


02 APPENDIX II 


the readings uncertain, but the writer believes that this tentative 
rendering conveys the substance of these lines. At the bottom 
of the monument, as shown in Fig. 316, the names of the sheiks 
or elders whom he transported are given, and the elders themselves 
are pictured, joined to one another by a rope which goes from 
neck to neck. It is not stated that he made these captives build 
the city for him, though in the statement that Ramses gave it 
his own name it is implied that it was either a new city or one 
that he was rebuilding. 


x 
TELL EN-NASBEH 
(Addition to Part I, Chapter IV, before the first paragraph on p. 117) 


16. Tell en-Nasbeh, on a hill seven miles north of Jerusalem, 
was partially excavated by Dean Frederick William Bade, of the 
Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California, working in con- 
junction with the American School of Oriental Research in Jeru- 
salem, in April and May, 1926. Dr. Badé believes the mound to 
be the site of Mizpeh, one of the cities prominent in the Biblical 
accounts of the life of Samuel. At the very beginning of the 
excavation part of a large tower was uncovered, which formed 
part of the city wall. The wall, so far as excavated, averaged 
about sixteen feet in thickness—a greater thickness than that of 
any other Palestinian city thus far excavated. Whatever city 
stood here was indeed a mighty fortress. Several cisterns and 
grain-bins or silos were explored and much pottery of the late 
Israelitish period was found. Under one of the silos a large 
disused cistern was found, which, as shown by the pottery it con- 
tained, was closed up about the time of the Babylonian Exile. 
Dr. Badé conjectures that the body of Gedaliah, whom a Samaritan, 
Ishmael, murdered (2 Kings 25: 22-25; Jer. 41:1-18), may 
have been thrown into it, but this is not proved. Two tombs 
were also discovered, which were shown by the pottery buried 
with the dead to belong to the late Stone Age and the beginning 
of the Bronze Age, i. e., 3000-2500 B. c. The remains of about 
seventy skeletons were taken from them and are being studied 
by scientists with a view of determining, if possible, the race to 
which they belonged. At present (April, 1927) Dr. Badé has 


1See Bulletin of the Pacific School of Religion, Vol. V, No. 3 (Sept., 1926). 


APPENDIX II 553 


returned to Palestine for another season’s work on the mound. 
It was announced in the public press of April 30 that the work of 
the present season has laid bare a section of the wall which proves 
to be from sixteen to twenty feet in width. The portion that 
has been found still stands twenty feet in height, with a glacis 
which indicates that the wall once rose to a height of forty feet. 
If this be true, the city that stood on this spot was the most strongly 
fortified of any that have yet been explored in Palestine. The city 
is thought to have been fortified as early as 3000 B. c. It is sug- 
gested that it may have been one of the store-cities of Solomon 
(1 Kings 9:19; 2 Chron. 8:4, 6). Whatever the name of the 
city, whether Mizpeh or not, it must have been one of the most 
important in the early history of the country. 

The daily press of May 10, 1927, also announced the discovery 
by Dr. Badé of a Semitic temple, with an altar at the east side of 
it. Flnt knives were scattered about, and underneath and in 
caves at the sides burials had been made. Underneath it was a 
still older structure. 


XI 
SKULL OF A PALEOLITHIC MAN 
(Addition to Part I, Chapter V, § 1, p. 118) 


In the spring of 1925 the British School of Archeology in Jeru- 
salem excavated some caves in the Wady el Amud, which branches 
off from the ancient Valley of Chinnereth (Genneseret) north- 
west of the Sea of Galilee! The purpose of the excavation was 
to gain, if possible, greater knowledge of the history of Palestine 
in the early Stone Age. In addition to numerous stone imple- 
ments that were found, the excavators were fortunate in dis- 
covering, in one of the caves which they cleared, considerable 
parts of a human skull of a very primitive type. Anthropologists 
who have studied it say that it is quite similar to that of the so- 
called ‘“Neanderthal’”’ man of Europe. While the skull is that of 
a more advanced type of man than that recently found in Mon- 
golia, it is of a type far less developed than that of any race at 
present alive. The implements, or artifacts, found with it are of 
the type called “Mousterian,” such as were found in the same 


1See Bulletin No. 7 of the British School of Archeology in Jerusalem, 1925, pp. 99-102 and 
Plates II-VI. 


554 APPENDIX II 


stratum in Europe as the “Neanderthal” man. This discovery 
attests the presence of man in Palestine before the middle of those 
many centuries which must have been included in the early Stone 
Age, and perhaps during the first third of that period. The skull 
found was that of a young man about twenty-five years of age, 
and showed traces of healed injuries or disease. The type is 
somewhat different from the European “Neanderthal” man, 
though clearly belonging to it. His brain capacity was less than 
that of most European men of this type, being about 1400 cubic 
centimeters. This is the first discovery of a “Neanderthal” man 
outside of Europe. ntl 


XII 
FURTHER DISCOVERIES ON OPHEL 
(Addition to Part I, Chapter IV, § 4 (15), p. 104, and Chapter XIII, § 5, p. 204) 


The excavations on Ophel, begun by the Palestine Exploration 
Fund in 1923 under the direction of Professor R. A. Stewart 
Macalister, were continued during the season 1924-25 under the 
direction of Rev. J. Garrow Duncan, who had been Professor 
Macalister’s assistant during the first season. The results of the 
two seasons’ work are now published in the Fund’s Aunual, Vol. 
IV, written jointly by the two excavators. The most important 
additions to our knowledge resulting from this work, in addition 
to those already reported in our fourth edition, are the discovery 
of an ancient valley, which once ran eastward from the Tyropean 
Valley, partly isolating the hill Ophel, on which the most ancient 
Jerusalem stood, and forming at that period of the city’s history 
a natural defence for about half of its northern exposure. This 
valley is believed to have been excavated by a stream, which in 
the Tertiary Period is thought to have flowed from a cave which 
the excavators also found in this region. In order to have a name 
by which to call the valley, they named it Zedek, for an old god of 
Jerusalem, whose name appears in the name Melchizedek (Gen. 
14:18) and Adonizedek (Josh. 10:1, 3). This valley had 
been extended eastward by a rock-cut trench, ten to twelve feet 
in average breadth and eight feet in depth. This formed, together 
with the wall which rose above it, the northern defence of the 
earliest city. Two causeways, raised about two feet above the 
floor of the trench and each about two feet broad, were left to 


APPENDIX II 555 


facilitate passage in and out of the city. Rude rock-cut steps 
led down to them at each end. These steps had been destroyed 
at the southern end of the causeways—probably broken pur- 
posely at the time of some siege of Jerusalem earlier than any 
that has been recorded. ‘The trench was filled with débris which 
contained potsherds of the period 2000-1600 3B. c. This shows 
that it had been filled up and disused as a means of defence five 
or six hundred years before the time of David, perhaps before the 
Jebusites obtained possession of it.! 

At the southern end of the east causeway the excavators found 
what they believe to have been the earliest altar in Jerusalem. 
In making the stairway by which the city was reached the rock 
was cut away, and a rounding top was left. This was surrounded 
by cup-marks, characteristic of rock-cut altars, and a number of 
bones of domestic animals were found in the vicinity. These 
facts support the theory that it was a place of sacrifice. The 
excavators recall that Abraham gave a tenth of his spoil to Mel- 
chizedek (Gen. 14: 20); this they infer was as a sacrifice, and 
they infer that, when this causeway was in use, every stranger on 
entering the city offered here a sacrifice to the god of the place. 
They also recall Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac (Genesis 22), and 
suggest the possibility that it may have been to this altar, rather 
than to the rock of Araunah the Jebusite farther up the hill, 
where the Temple was afterward built, that Abraham came on 
that occasion. 

This excavation definitely proves that early Jerusalem was on 
the eastern hill, not on the western, and the possibilities suggested 
by the editors are worthy of consideration. 


XII 
JERUSALEM’S THIRD WALL 
(Addition to and correction of Part I, Chapter XIII, § 21, p. 228) | 


At different times during the past two or three years Dr. E. L. 
Sukenik has discovered at various points about a quarter of a 
mile north of the present north wall of Jerusalem the remains of 
a city wall which, in the judgment of some archeologists in Jeru- 
salem, are the foundations of the wall built by Herod Agrippa I, 
which, on account of the description of Josephus, is generally 


1 See the Aunual mentioned above, pp. 12-36. 


556 APPENDIX II 


called by scholars the “Third Wall.” For the course of the wall 
see Fig. 319. A new section of this wall was accidentally dis- 
covered in the autumn of 1926 in front of the new building of the 
American School of Oriental Research, while an excavation was 
being made to widen the street. Further excavation has revealed 
much more than was accidentally laid bare, and a tower and gate 
have been exposed. This gate corresponds to what Josephus 
calls the “Women’s Towers” (Jewish Wars, V, 2:2). The loca- 
tion of a part of the “Third Wall” thus appears to be determined, 
though the writer is informed that Professor Hughes Vincent of 
the Ecole Etienne in Jerusalem doubts that the remains dis- 
covered are parts of Agrippa’s wall. | 


XIV 
ANTIOCH IN PISIDIA 
(Addition to Part I, Chapter XV, p. 246) 


4. Antioch of Pisidia was partially excavated by Professor 
David M. Robinson, of the Johns Hopkins University, while 
acting as Director of an expedition of the University of Michigan, 
in the summer of 1924.! Antioch was founded by Seleucus I, 
who died in 282 B. c., probably on the site of an earlier Pisidian 
town. It passed under Roman rule in 190 B. c., and a year later 
was made by them a free city. In 39 B. c. Mark Antony gave it 
to King Amyntas, who, like Herod the Great, was really a Roman 
subject. Amyntas was taken prisoner and put to death in 25 B. C. 
by brigand tribes whom the Romans called Homanadenses. 
Amyntas left his kingdom by will to the Emperor Augustus. 
Augustus accepted the legacy, organized the Province of Galatia, 
and, making Antioch his military base, afterward punished the 
Homanadenses. ‘Tiberius beautified the city with a well-paved 
square or market place, which was surrounded by imposing build- 
ings. This square Dr. Robinson cleared (see Fig. 318). The city 
built by Tiberius was still flourishing when Paul and Barnabas 
visited it and founded a Christian church there (see Acts 13, 14). 
The pavement shown is that actually trodden by the feet of the 


Apostles. For many centuries Christianity flourished at Antioch, — a 


as the remains of the Byzantine Church shown in Fig. 317 testify. 


1See Professor Robinson’s “Preliminary Report” in the American Journal of Archeology, 
Vol. XXVIII (1924), pp. 435-444. 


APPENDIX II 557 


XV 
AMRAPHEL AND CHEDORLAOMER 
(Addition to Part II, Chapter IX, § 8, p. 324) 


In recent years several attempts have been made to bring the 
statements of the fourteenth chapter of Genesis into accord with 
historical events of a period later than that of Hammurapi. As 
previously stated (p. 320), scholars have seen in Amraphel a 
corruption of the name Hammurapi, and in Arioch, king of Elassar, 
Eri-aku or Rim-Sin, king of Larsa, both of whom ruled several 
centuries earlier than the Biblical chronology places Abraham. 
One of the most interesting of the attempts to find correspondences 
between the fourteenth chapter of Genesis and archeologically 
attested facts of a later time is that made by Dr. W. F. Albright, 
Director of the American School of Oriental Research in Jeru- 
salem, in the autumn of 1926.1 Dr. Albright’s effort was prompted 
by several archeological considerations, some of which were 
raised by discoveries in Palestine, others by discoveries in 
upper Mesopotamia. Among the last mentioned are the names 
of some kings found on tablets dug up at ‘Ashdra on the Euphrates 
by Thureau-Dangin and Dhorme.2 “Ashara is the site of the 
capital of the ancient kingdom of Hana, and there is reason to 
believe that the texts mentioned come from the period 1800- 
1600 B. c. Dr. Albright further proposes to identify the kings 
mentioned in the tablets translated above on pp. 322, 323 with 
rulers of this same period. The name Eri-aku he connects with 
a man whose son, Tukulti-belit-ilani, ruled in northern Babylonia 
about 1800 B. c. Shinar he equates with Singara. Of Tudkhula 
he remarks that at least five Hittite kings bore the name Tudk- 
halia. For Amraphel he has found no certain equivalent, but 
suggests two or three hypothetical possibilities. 

As yet it is impossible to prove the theory Dr. Albright proposes. 
The period has hitherto been one of the darkest in the history of 
Western Asia, owing to the lack of historical documents containing 
information about it. The theory, however, deserves attention. 
Should it prove to be true, it would relieve a great chronological 
difficulty. 

1 Dr. Albright’s article is entitled “The Historical Background of Genesis XIV,” and is pub- 
lished in the Journal of the Society of Oriental Research, Vol. X, pp. 231-269. 


2See ‘Cinq Jours de Fouilles a ‘Ashara”’ (7-11 Septembre, 1923), par M. Francois Thureau- 
Dangin et le R. P. Dhorme, in Syria, Vol. V (1924), pp. 265-293. 


558 APPENDIX II 


XVI 


THE TEACHING OF AMEN-EM-OPE! 
(To supplement Part II, Chapter XXIV, at the end of § 5, p. 472) 


The work from which extracts are here presented was published 
by Dr. E. A. Wallis Budge in 1923, but it reached the present 
writer too late to be used in preparing the fourth edition. It is 
written in hieroglyphic Egyptian, but the papyrus comes from a 
comparatively late time. Amen-em-ope appears to have lived 
between 1500 and 1300 B. c. Omitting the long list of Amen-em- 
ope’s titles, the text begins: 


30. Amen-em-ope, son of Ka-nakht 

46. Says (Chapter One) 

47. Incline thy ears; listen to the words spoken! 

48. Apply thy heart to understanding! 

49. Profitable it is to set these in thy heart; 

50. A calamity to him who passes them by! 

51. Take, deposit [them] in the repositories of thy body; 
52. They will effect a change in thy heart. 

53. In the strife, when gales of words fly 

54, They will form the support of thy tongue. 

55. If thou wilt go on thy daily way with these things in thy heart, 
56. Thou wilt find them [a help] in case of calamities; 
57. Thou wilt find my words a treasure-house of life— 
58. The health of thy body while upon the earth. 


The words of this First Chapter remind one of many verses in 
the early chapters of the Book of Proverbs. Thus in Prov. 2: 1 
ff.; 3:1 ff.; 4: 20-22 we find expressions strikingly resembling 
those translated here. 


59. Chapter Two: 

60. Guard thyself from robbing the poor, 

61. From treating harshly the destitute, 

62. From turning away thy hand at the approach of an old man, 
63. From assuming for thyself the tone of a great man, 
64. From ever thyself sending one on a dangerous mission 
65. When thou carest for him who is to execute it, 

66. From doing an evil deed to him who has harmed thee 
67. When able to answer him in thy own behalf. 

68. The worker of evil—cast him on the river-bank; 

69. His own water-floods he will bring on himself. 


1The Teaching of Amen-em-apt, son of Kanekht, by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, Litt. D., etc., 
London, 1924. Translations and criticisms of it have also been published, in German by Adolf 
Erman, and in Danish by H. O. Lange. An interesting article on the subject is also published 
by Ludwig Keimer in the American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, Vol. XLII 


(October, 1926), pp. 8-21. These scholars believe that the work of Amen-em-apt, or Amen-em- a 


ope, as Erman spells it, was employed as a source by the compilers of our Book of Proverbs. 


APPENDIX II a7 


. Him—the north wind blowing upon him will end his day; 
. It will bring him into rough weather; 

. The storm-fiend will rise and the evil crocodiles. 

. The hot-tempered man—to thee what is he like? 

. He shrieks, he cries to heaven; 

. The moon-god stands still; he is an abomination to him. 
. Work the rudder! We must sail around this bad man! 
. Might we not have acted as he himself does? 

. Set him on his feet; give to him thy hand; 

. Commit him to the hands of the god; 

. Fill his body with bread of thy providing; 

. Satisfy him in all his desire (?); 

. Another good time is in the heart of the god; 

. Inactivity is the best of retorts! 


Consideration for the poor, which is taught at the beginning of 
this chapter, finds expression also in such passages as Prov. 14 : 31; 
28:27. Many passages of the Book of Proverbs describe the 
utterances of the evil man and counsel the avoidance of conten- 
tion with an angry man: see Prov. 15:1, 18, 28; 16 : 32; while 
the treatment which the Egyptian sage recommended for the evil 
man strongly reminds us of Prov. 25 : 21 ff. 

Omitting material not so interesting to the Biblical student, 
we come to line 


108. 
109. 
110. 
ELE. 
112. 
113. 
114. 
rt. 
116. 
117. 
118. 
119. 
120. 
121. 
b2z. 
123. 
124. 


Chapter Five: 

Do not make encroachments on the dykes of the house of the god; 
Do not act avariciously that thou mayest get gain; 

Do not make a servant of a god stumble 

To advance the interest of another; 

Do not say the word “‘today is like tomorrow”; 

The attainment of these is like what? 

Tomorrow is to come; today is still in progress. 

The inundation is going to be at the crest of the wave; 
The crocodiles will appear; the hippopotomi will rise up; 
The fishes will migrate; 

The wolves will be sated; the birds will be at festival; 
The protecting amulets will be left behind; 

All the silent ones of the house of the god— 

They will say ‘Great is the praise of Re.” 

O thou who art full of silence, thou shalt find life; 

Thy body shall be healthy on the earth. 


Omitting some material which has no Palestinian parallel, we 
find in Chapter Seven the following: 


148 


. Do not plough the lot of another. 


149. Does it befit thee to gain prosperity from their mouths? 
150. Plough in the fields which thou findest allotted to thee; 


151 


. Receive thy sustenance from thy own personal threshing-floor. 


APPENDIX II 


. Better is one lot of land given thee by the god 

. Than five thousand by violence. 

. Do not practice passing the day in eating-houses: 

. Do not practice passing [it] in sipping pots of beer! 

. To those who pass their whole time in larders 

. The brightness of the world becomes [simply] eatables. 
. Better is the poor man in the hand of the god 

. Than the rich in a comfortable house. 

. Better unleavened cakes with kindliness of heart 

. Than riches with contentiousness. 


The admonition not to remove land-marks (for that is what 
“encroaching on the dykes” and ‘‘ploughing in the fields of another”’ 
mean) reminds us of Prov. 22 : 28 and 23 : 10 and also of the pro- 
hibitions of Deut. 19:14 and 27:17. The admonitions as to 
eating and drinking are strikingly similar to Prov. 23:21. Lines 
160, 161 recall Prov. 15 : 17. 


206. 
207. 
208. 
209. 
210. 
Zity 
212. 
243: 
214. 


Chapter Nine. 

Do not make the hot-headed man thy intimate friend 

Even should he come frequently to entreat thee. 

Watch thy tongue in making answer to thy superior 

So that thou mayest guard thyself against his revilings. 

Do not let him throw his speech to lasso thee 

So that thou must throw it off by thy entreaty, 

So that thou askest questions, entreating like a servant in thy utterance. 
But be thou careful not to run from him. 


From subsequent chapters we select the following: 


. God hates him who transgresses in talking; 
. Those are most hateful to him who cherish hatred within (?). 


© © 8. oo: (ee) ee! “oy ee) me) lew. eee Rt eee Oye ers Tele OF mie ee eee eke ee 


. Better is praise with the love of men 

. Than riches in a treasure-house. 

. Better are unleavened cakes with kindliness of heart 
. Than riches with contentiousness. 


© ef 9 ws fe lel 8) mS eee wee) a) lel wire, pene obi e\ 4 eee ele) wo wire e 0 ae ee re ee ee 


. Do not carry balances to falsify weights to thy profit, 

. Or to thy advantage to diminish the quantity of measures. 

. Do not wish to measure the fields, 

. To discard for thy own advantage those [measurements] of the Govern- 


ment-House; 


. Thoth [the god of justice] sits beside the measuring-implements; 
. These are his possessions; his heart is in the balance-pan. 

. The god, like the great Thoth, throws into the canal 

. Him who habitually devises such practices. 

. Do not make for thyself weights too small; 

. These multiply the tears of the sainted-souls with the god. 

. If thou seest another straying, 

. Thou shalt cause him to go in the right way. 


oe ye 0 6 6 ee 8 we 0 eo te 8 6 6 e 6 oe 0 e) 6 0) 8 6 be he 8 8} ee 6 eS Om ee 


APPENDIX II 561 


370. Do not habitually sleep while morn is breaking, 
371. What is there like dawn illumining the earth? 
372. The man ignorant of the dawn—what is he like? 
373. While the god is in his beneficent works 

374. The man is in his affairs a failure. 

375. On the one side are the words men utter; 

376. On the other side are the deeds the god does. 


See ee ee ke se aw we © 6 8 6 6 SP ee De 4 ee OUD Eee 8 


409. Now truth is the great exalter of the god; 

410. He gives it to the one who loves him. 

411. Now one has great power who is in his likeness! 
412. He removes the hurtful one who opposes his works. 


Sete ee ene eS 6 sane. 614 Gree) 66 0S Bere eT Mee ee oS CV Re cee ee 88 8 


440. Better for a man is it to speak with his own belly 
441. Than that he speak in lying. 


Pere) So) 6 Ras eee ee Cre SO 8 Ce 6 £8 8 6 ee DRC OKO EHS Rew AK R OD OO 


472. Cleanse thy heart of evil qualities, 

473. For the hearts of men are the nose of the god. 
525. The love of the god is more heartily to be praised 
526. Than the honor of the notables of the land. 


eeeececaececsceowsneeeseesesee ares eanseeeesees tes ereereeeseevneeeeseenvnesen 


A comparison shows that lines 305, 306 are a repetition of lines 
160, 161. This fact goes to show that The Teaching of Amen-em- 
ope, as is also the case with the Book of Proverbs, was com- 
piled from different sources, in which the same saying had some- 
times been included. 

The many admonitions to speak the truth and to be careful in 
what one says find many parallels in the Book of Proverbs, as 
any one may prove by looking up with the aid of a concordance 
the many references to “lips” and ‘‘tongue” in the Biblical book. 
The utterances about false weights and measures remind one of 
Prov. 11:1; 16:11; 20:10, 23. Just weights are said to belong 
to Jehovah, just as just measuring implements or weights belong 
to Thoth; Thoth’s heart is with them, Jehovah takes delight in 
them. The words on early rising in the Egyptian work (lines 
370 ff.) recall three different passages in Proverbs: Prov. 6:9, 
10; 20: 13; and 24:33. In all of them the motive urged by the 
Biblical writer is prudential: early rising, coupled with industry, 
tends to prosperity; sluggishness and late rising, to poverty. 
While this motive is not absent from the Egyptian work (line 
374), its author touches a higher note in the appreciation of the 
beauty of dawn which he expresses, and the imitation of the god 
which he suggests. The connection between truth and God set 
forth in Lines 409-412 reminds one of Prov. 12:17-22. Line 


562 APPENDIX II 


473 of the Egyptian document brings to mind Prov. 20: py 
“The spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah,” though the figure 
employed by the Egyptian is by no means as beautiful. Finally, 
lines 525, 526, though different, recall Job 28 : 28: “The fear of 
Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom.” The Egyptian writer, like 
those of the Bible, commended religion. The Egyptian docu- 
ment, though polytheistic, rises at times to seemingly monotheistic 
expression. 


XVII 
THE DATE OF THE CHALICE OF ANTIOCH 
(Addition to Part II, Chapter XXX, § 7: p. 518) 


During the past two years important contributions have been 
made to the discussion of the date of the Chalice of Antioch. 
These discussions are based on comparisons of the forms on the 
chalice (especially the eagle, vine, basket, lamb, and star) with 
the use and execution of similar motifs in the art of the Levant 
and in that of early Christianity. Professor Charles R. Morey, 
after a discussion of this nature, concludes that the chalice may 
be either a work of the fourth century, of a very peculiar type, or 
a modern forgery: The Jesuit Father Guillaume de Jerphanion, 
Professor in the Oriental Institute at Rome, who has devoted a 
learned monograph to the subject, concludes that the forms and 
the grouping on the chalice do not appear in Christian art until 
after the fourth century, and that some of the features remind 
one of the sixth century. He would date the chalice somewhere 
about the year 500.2 On the other hand, Professor B. W. Bacon,’ 
of Yale, has shown that the same figures (eagle, vine, and star) 
are found in the art of the age of the Antonines at Baalbek, which 
was executed in the second century, and both he and Professor 
R. P. Dougherty* have also demonstrated that these motifs were 
widely employed in the Orient much earlier. T he matter is not 
yet determined. Professors Morey and Jerphanion are great 
authorities in Christian art, but have they taken into account the 
facts to which Professors Bacon and Dougherty call attention? 


To a layman it still does not seem impossible that the chalice _ a 


1“The Chalice of Antioch” in Art Studies, Medieval and Modern, III, 1925, pp. 73-80. 

2 Le Calice d’Antioche, Rome, 1926. See especially p. 159. 

3 “Bagle and Basket on the Antioch Chalice” in the Annual of the American Schools of Oriental 
Research, 1925, pp. 1-22. 

4 Cf. the Annual cited in the preceding note, p. 36, N. 51. 


APPENDIX II 563 


may be a second century product from Antioch, and that its 
antecedents are to be sought in the Oriental influences which came 
to a focus in Syria in that century. Meanwhile we await further 
light. 
XVIII 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN IN SAHIDIC 


(Addition to Part II, Chapter XXXT, § 10, p. 529) 


Late in 1924 the Egyptian version of the Gospel of John men- 
tioned above, p. 529, was published,! but it reached this country 
too late to be used in preparing our fourth edition. The version 
is written on papyrus leaves which had been folded, wrapped in 
a rag, and thrust into an earthenware vessel, which was found in 
a cemetery, about eighteen inches below the surface of the ground. 
When found the vessel was broken and the papyrus very brittle. 
With much difficulty the papyrus was moistened and unwrapped. 
Naturally parts of it were broken away. If the book had ever 
borne a date it had thus been lost, but the paleography indicates 
that it was written in the first half of the fourth century. Only 
two of the known Greek manuscripts are earlier than this. The 
translation itself appears to have been made in the second century. 
The dialect in which it is written differs both from the Sahidic 
of Thebes and from the dialect of Akhmim, being intermediate 
between the two. The translation differs materially from that 
of the Coptic Version, and seems to have been made independently 
from the Greek. The text agrees in general with that of the oldest 
known Greek manuscripts, and belongs to the type which scholars 
call “Alexandrian.” It omits such passages as John 5:4 and 
7:53-8:11. Another valuable witness to the type of text of 
this Gospel that was current in Egypt in the second century is 
thus added. 

XIX 


A NEW CUNEIFORM REFERENCE TO THE AMORITES 
(Addition to Appendix I, p. 539) 
Additional evidence that the Amorites were not West Semitic 


and that they did not occupy the region around Aleppo in the 
fourth or fifth millennium B. c., and that they did not at that 


1The Gospel of John according to the Earliest Coptic Manuscript, edited with translation by 
Sir Herbert Thompson, London, 1924. 


564 APPENDIX II 


early period enjoy a high civilization, is afforded by a tablet 
recently excavated at Ur. Its date-formula reads!: 


Year when to Ibi-Sin, 

king of Ur, 

the Amorites, a southern tribe 
who never knew a city, 
surrendered. 


Tbi-Sin lived about 2350 B. c. It was the custom of Babylonian — : : 


scribes of this time to date events in years of a king’s reign, and a 


to name each year by the most important event in it. This date- 


formula thus proves that as late as 2350 B. c. Amorites in uncivil- 


ized hordes. were still pouring up from the south—a striking con- 
firmation of their Arabian origin and of their nomadic character. 


1 Published by L. Legrain in the Museum Journal, December, 1926, p. 379. 


INDEX OF SCRIPTURE PASSAGES 


GENESIS— PAGE GENESIS— PAGE Exopus— PAGE 
DL damaauicecaEee CRE see ZOE DORMER Oa caitaiceia O21 00 BOM cece 522 
Rea Seats hese ess .. 268 DSH OF occ cas Melee ots eee 20: 12 alan 411 
1726527 ©. 33s wtiese 210 Dar DD Ackeale © alt vie ole 610 177 PIE ise PPR kine 385 
A Sea eR waO1LS DI LV Ss HRCI CIRO CIEEC 172 ZO 24 os gree vies 4 3 ane 188 
2:4, ff pies we 210 Bors ve sie cure sivele. 318 BON 24~ 26 eo wig cies eee 214 
De hiss ss ot es 276 DOOeES Sa as siee.c i's HELE RE BUA 2=O neces asters 343, 350 
YM) oR SPS ne oe eens eal VASE aca Seca arty rer 150 Pe WY oo hs bara eR eCTeTCS 351 
2210-14... ....0% See OeL 26 : 1, 6, 17, 20, 26 103 ALeeOsweks Weta 366, 397 
VHOANG, OE dt ea OU DASE YB Ber PI SOIR 72 DUT VA eae otis pekais 351 
CO iS ea ir Seat eee 283 OE Vcstian alee cain eee 8 123 21: 12-14, 18-27..... 361 
3:16 rahe een ee ee 283 SURG — 1S Siecc dic eiowees 355 ZIG yews a cteaces oer 343 
Oe IO rockets oie ee eee 283 Di Dare easier eee nate 417 DLP LTR iere sve erawisretee 359 
SRO aed: Sse al cere 315 SALOED Oleg tersce eras cen ayes 145 De Ze , poems cle e aleve ae 367 
See pipeas tices ee Wee 283 S0220, 21529075 126, 305 DAU LOBIO were cintecire ee 364 
Siesta veo. 283 OMe S225) 29's Wels erss 124 PP AE Ee: BA treo 342 
Dy ae cent ss 297, 298, 315 Orel cere utils core sieve 121 Lett lobes ete se 377 
Mel ey LO eS ceases 6 297 BORA a ecis ceteris bales 335 Deer a irareteters 346, 347, 380 
<tr eoee 293 SS ON2 0 fie erarcters ase 121, 124 2225) Ocneaes suave nieare 346 
oD Eee ac 6 edie nile ein 171 BL RPL oe aie srclarecsretere 149 ORAL doa) RY IRIIC Oe Orc 399 
Me Delta wares vcae'sie-<. 0 293 Sarl ee a cei ere a orerece’ 34 D2 EOs 2 ein Ge oe 346, 378 
5..-289, 294, 296, 298, 315 ets tae aaccare wo: 328 22 IOS ie picelere se 350 
Lay 1 iiss eee a aie 294 EN 20) Uh a ae RC esieoOe 222 10-13 Sita w eareicin ere 366 
6,7, 8,9.. . .299, 303 4130 94, Fo 329 RE IGT Sea soe ass 
rere Osteen wise. 313, 315 ALSO Tie ca ss tice eins 329 ZEGALS Coe aie rian 341, 397 

10 : 10. .46, 49, 62, 103, 541 QUOD en inieie slecnceleaie 173 ETA oe aie ptereere I eeOoS 
LO laeleences . 46, 49, 64 AVES wate averse wien Oe C2 2O sd eevee Sale ceeL 
NO esis sa ace ees 131 A ATH 5 Jia ode siovesels » 333 22 26021 a secs ue ero 351 
1h iy eran ee Oe oe BLED E ES vos Sie. seas oe 329 23: PLO PLES pees erieinse 346 
Diao yeaa. ease week AG ERG ee catenegerarence axe 407 LST ee hee tare 347, 380 
A ca Pe Se ore ase ear cte . 44 his V5 = 1D Rare eeisiane o's 336 DOS 1514 a iece van 400 
PR TSeL a eagles sas ss 124, 318 BR rea eo tala a ose e's 360 29 SAO Se Saves oo acivistere 174 
RIL R D be ieee ie amie ea 83 SURES eeia maces siesie's 196 SAIE2OD eee aes Melemeeke 188 
Diss heros secs © 127 DU e2O veces aoe s 329, 471 3D 22 a, cease eee ae 172 
ph Re a Ae 83, 124, 336 BURA Ga Falisettiee TL ae 
14:1.... 62, 316, 319-324 Exopus— 

oR ee 231 FICE 18 Lp aa coe ee POLLO LEviticus— 

Te Owe eee. 12h, 131 Did 1O stahete Aacereie clots 338 S018 een ese aceulek 401 
ALS sn ee es érvisieis > 229 ST a Wl AP peice Ret LOS aso 6.233550 des nee wae 342 
LS Dee ieciees ess 229 Bie 5 Mars ectea di eraieie's 168 GUS 220 er acres 401 
Grete, sor este OOS BUT SUS ine cance ne See IL 128710514, 8405286 401 
DO ISIce cc os ese nses (S00 1h ie eer ear a GAC 151 TEATS Pian eae ee 400 
ASIN Ini aeaeee 4 ID 101 UZ hers a arco talons vate t oO IOWA Rae coreces 400 
AEM Wh oie aR toe SEARS TZ SU oe cciteis cetereais 38 IR I da eee lear, a aac IONS 377 
DOTS pia ac cece: « Bose LLG Voie 2 Oe ee nk aisrevatete 38 VPSS esc cee 165 
Stel aie ttietssss» 103 PAZ 3 2G capi k dist ereve ae 38 ASei6a18 yeas ces 356, 386 
Bite Os. sees Bee G00 1615 36 crern ore pisheverenets 174 1853-26 as oa ees 342 
Lie thats Bee iarsivials Sia. Loo 1813-260 ar ares 342 TD Oe ee raed.s es aeitae 346 
PUL Se SR aR Gat ore: 104 20 Mee eres ait a Ree EM! ASANO Wao aes 348, 380 
D2ENOS AO cise cass ie 10S BO AS Severs auninrelenele te 263 AD 20— 22 acento 355 
eee ore sacissyvsys 109 ALON ad We Pee Pies Ar ie achlc 281 ZO Sa1 0 ctevere cre sete 355, 396 


INDEX OF SCRIPTURE PASSAGES 


566 

LEviticus— PAGE 
20% 10-21 Fcc - oe ees ROSO 
20311, 12, 19-21..... 356 
23 See cabeebrskereraatazens |p ier 450 
De DOLE Ce rsisve scslecete 367 
PAO Ba Sey PERT OD .. 380 
2) i Saree acs eat snes Loe 
D5 2 SAO cients alerciete 343 
262) 2Ooh picts Reet ae 165 

NuMBERS— 

5:39) 1 Oui ee sees 401 
5311-28... 341, 355, 396 
1G BOAR Were Se nears 152 
CU: wt Tee ge aed Aina ys 155 
16 2513 ;114 sas cicnie es 3 ¥ 155 
Zi Sahsac aieraieis cistoimieretere 125 
v8 Ws bac A aI agency Prey ease 423 
Py at i Wo Rees me 131 
PL RIU Ee Nee re dc 131,390 
2A 55S). Geiacoustnistovone erexeen $13 
QP ESL tits caster ere me 535 
2g OS He eee a germ n aL 417 
22 2 28-30. ee aee ns 482 
25 25 10 Wo cam senes sc 396 
202 ASS awe hotoutade as 407 
DTS AL are wleuerovdtenete t= 359 
Oh ZO AD re sik ohsioy ooh ysis 401 
Ol SO varaie Be atepereele 173 
S22 SIE eis wacee 101 
SZ ibe anepeciereauers 127, 423 
D2, oO ates ava nsieh eaters 423 
oe RIAD Cid Payarcoedciesalece sors 231 
Restle ARS Ais 5 imac yr 38 
36 F212 eh sacinaleavebinns 359 

DEUTERONOMY— 
1-3 a ota tiereren Ss 125 
Bae A Tee Rae 126; 1273 
131, 335, 417 

DAD We aiowa cueieteee 121 

De DAS ete rate ehatetere ei 423 

De DO ie eteeveceattns 334 

Bis Diane Pesisetala uslenterkes 131 

Koh We Baan ABine aero 233 

5 See eaeeene et 521 

Bish) amuses ants 522 

ne Keema Site nike 423, 471 

Bid Le auenias conn uate 521 

ah Fae PA A eisai 521 

HOC FR ra WPL Stic 155 

O24 Nae eho e 522 

OTAGS Mekewcaeen. 521 

OD Gras eaueetete 520 

1o Seva wale ate 97 
102018 caesar 484 
EL TO Fea acsnateeetens ous 90 
NO REES Fae 97 
OAL Ha ae a ES Ree 281 
DA eden lhecchstolave uetote ace 377 
TEIN co esehose loiahotane Gre 484 
15 Eel Baa sip tace nisyeie ios 350 
DUET Wy Obl ria tae as 367, 397 


DEUTERONOMY— PAGE 
16°39, Seu ere ete 151 
16248-2052 eae 342 
aR eas UO kT PS epics. Gee es 341 
19 ATT ech eenstare 361 
LOns05 opie tetelara te ities 168 
L914 ee eae ected ete 399 
bY 8 soe Al Reg et A so 15 341 
19) S18) 19s vw scence 341 
19 )s 2 Vie citer ders Puce COL 
208 527 5 aia wale 375 
ZA i9 Sires aceite 343 
241521 Sa, Vowels 359 
DIS Ge. anne aes 155 
222 1S—-21 Tete anes 352 
22 DOs rcitauereeiete 396 
D2 292 Vere stee eo oere 387 
D2 2029 oe ines acanain 355 
222 BO acca sate sheen 356 
23 2:15). oe ge eer 343 
23 E40 Bees 350, 353 
23 ATI AS Sieereuments 360 
OS ORY 2 re a OPN se5)8 153 
23: 28 25a eiaee eee 346 
DEN Ae lars iaccisioerens 356 
DE GLE hoc. meine Ape ges Sy 
D4 AsO, Abert tenses 351 
24 U1 13 ee Lorin eset 351 
ye a) ee nes oe 346 
PASE Shits wap eae 151 
25.2 SH1Oe ae ocean oe 396 
OA Bae ar BS aR a eae) oc 169 
BONO Deecs eicciegia ls aes 128 
282 SoA keene 169 
83 10722 eat een 399 
B41 Weta aeoes 423 

JosHua— ; 

Dt acetone 154 
SS 2S ancnee etree 168 
674 20 tena tate tee 141 
D0 eee caer 126 
TO ois hue erent 417 
BOE acini ees 95, 127 
TQ ALO ee iceee octets a 417 
1OR12. Ck ase eae 417 
LOSS Stee 98, 127, 132 
1 ed ee bee etna Soc 126 
al Ws Patel Nh ye eo Sis 97 
6 Be Hes Brees SR 126, 417 
12 ee 104, 105, 417 
yee ay res ee 35 149 
13 30 Ree meres 513 
£32619 2 ees 423 
1325s en ee eee 233 
MGs 2Gse se ec eeme 417 
155 Be ae eee 126, 418 
TS E30 ates 100, 127 
VSN eIS Teenie aioe 129, 131 
Vi ieee OBE Bis eee 126, 131 
VS SAAT ee cd tastes 404 
cts Raa aS Bee 418 
15 Oa eee 126, 418 


JosHuA— PAGE 
1556355 55% cea Geeee 204 
se ae Wy een SS 126, 129, 

149, 230, 417 
nly fies Wo ee W Bieta cea e) . 114 
18 2522 si ose ee 418 
182 24.40 thn ener 126 
19.2 O.: tai leaee 125 
19 : 18-20, 25, 28. .126, 417 
BOK Oi eRe ets eae 126 
19 035.0. ie ae tats ape 114 
19: 3S.3ven 126, 129 
19 43S, Ge eae 129 
19 42 cae seen re 417 
1D 3 437 os eee ten 418 
195 44 oo alee 437 
20s Tice re Gre ecigt teen 149 
20 Seo che Gee ee 423 
DAS D3. ccgactecee ere 437 
JupcEs— 
1°: 5, 27=36.2 cae neers 131 
PLT ac ie e eee 126 
1ot 21 sees ee ee 204 
1:27... 98, 114, 126, 417 
9 AE 29. beeen seve 132 
Le Siksaaeniees 127, 417 
G22 seein siete eueeereetere 126 
MB ee ore é 149 
4321) 38 ccetepietae 169 | 
e190 oe Saget cad Osincalg 
5 2 262.. Gewe ates 169 
OBS 335. eoe eres 123, 334 
6.21 15h ie ae 126, 209 
67.19 5) a. ee nes . 169 
62:33) 35 heen A238 
P12 See 123, 334 
VP 22s sivas enteare 126 
8 200). ais eae gees 123 
8310, 112. nem eces 334 
0.34546 wena 409 
0: 53), Scuteakeenrctnens 152 
1450.3, :Soeeieers iain uae 126 
Late 2 Gea cas estoMator 127 
13 216.25 tee eee 415 
13'3:19.5 Joe eres 209 
163: 23-30 caw 99, 192 
182.718: [eR nee eee aioe 
18°29. ot eve wees 149 
19'S 105 1iteue eos 204 
20% 40% cee PO sore 109 
2119s Speier 126 

1 SAMUEL— 

132 eer See 116 
213.14 Se Scere 167 
PN ee rar ik: 116 
45:4. she aoe ees 126 
7: 13, 14; 17,18... 415 
Bere ease ee gb) 
O33 wa ketinbpeeneamete 116 
185 


INDEX OF SCRIPTURE PASSAGES 567 


1 SAMUEL PAGE 1 Kincs— PAGE 2 Kincs— PAGE 
DOr raised eee 149 ff ENS a eee Peeper ti 210 FOS Ae oo AM Praga eS B 428 
Beenie kis + Xa s 149 Det S aie d-vratenee 6 127, 206 9 Wy PRR We i pie AIRE Sangh 66, 139 
Lee eng aa oe 417 Dy 51 ere ala te aidicts 100 NiO 224) thal fa eine 428 
AD 2 Mpecte tis eye trai oh 177 DST Orel derycuaeres 31, 140 bal Nase, Bere ond tah at ae 430 
Dee cenriy ea cee axsce 126 RDA EMA p mumndcrare aah. 205 Liss 24 teny ee 140, 141 
Beat oh ee ee sila Saino 97 LOR tthe eine oe sees, 429 Pn 2434 we etre 110, 134 
Mh SRP eters Cio oS eesic3 155 a(t aes [SS Feo sean entre 441 IS eeiisictseiswe le lee g404, 435 
A eape tare s saile Sialate 414 LOSES S20 sorters wt eree 211 Sot OO Fi ere ieee 214 
Marthe ts ashe eaters 127, 204 5 Ne HF eR eee ae ae 133 ee, Es CBee 187 
Dee eaten alorsiorecne 204 ULE PD Hisgaetave tar oka eis 103, 206 LOE 13 Sei notte 46 
Bl erent Re Song sake 126 SA Oe a tes os ene aa Fare 31 LSet 3- 1S eae cates 435 

SES eit el cst re si cee origi ice 170 LPB es Eee i Ae 417 1855:93-—1952 822 3 ee 436 

eal icnce et orcts aiale 149, 417 149725, fis...6 0S) 163,418 LSet aes crecne 95, 434 

SPACE Di ciate es tacte kei 230 TA 2528 Soca eee 31, 417 LS iat A cil. ce aetoteteen 434 
Tks OE ree eae o 114 LES SUA Wee enue yd rior ee 126 soy yb WAP per eae ent 3 fe 435 

Leo 2 ae lete s.cis a Oa e 109 Bees PAE Aide ete Oe SP Ee 155 

2 SAMUEL— LONE2 S29 hater ad esses 423 Ores occktsic ate totn4a5 

SB Wery Gaececesiricie oer 513 VON DA eee ot 110, 143 1s 0. Se eee, eee 32, 435 

ota Mea ena ste sho takes cine Age ORES Tetons screie ste 117 19 0-36.22 oe atinte tee 436 

le De earn 417 165342. -. 2 107, 141, 144 ash cee oe 434, 435 

SR LG ccters a civieew's sie 170 el Ores 2 okt Ae ee 149 LOIS AG ae a oe a 437 
Aiea ae ae ee 145 PORES phy ce os 150, 151 193 80a 46, 68, 438 
GHB ics witless 146, 204 A orgie tee lege Fetes Pee Oe rar 399 ZO TA tree ce eee 67 
Bometercvetre Seite «0 /ris 94 eM rie Aencia ere ciacrere obit ait OKs 2 OR Se nace 214, 437 
Qa ote ee 6 205 DONS O: Mea em re a 110, 143 PAUSE Rn REGAG oto, oc = 438 
dd ener eee so 117 ZT Seis s Hears 438 
Sie ettetsy te cavcns: « 98 2 Kincs— DLO te cre etree 188 

6 Blok Sean eee 116 Det O25 aaats cure LOL Zo 1E M eee LS 
Piss 194 cS Oe ae ene 422 EB a eae ieoage My hie 185 

Te tile eee 87 BAe rah Gn Whois 422 23210 ee 188, 215 
meee se ent oe 6 233 sede Dees Sit ara, eiewete 213 PAS HG Chet nbs ee Sera 185 
Fa fA A og don 146, 233 POHL 1k Aalave ahs forests 423 BST29 AE set ae hate 33, 104 
ieee relene a arene 168 YS aera tac 126, 417 D320 ieee ee eee Pe 439 
De Meaatdtarctala cus es aiece 206 CN OORT ae REAR EAD B 282 Vi SU eee iran aut 33, 439 
CO), a aia i eee 155 Dy PO) De Se ha RS eye, 103 Dee i acetets 46, 69, 439 
bd a hs Se ats or ie 417 DAL ae teraeeaian ty clots tae 230 25 24a cate 215 
Deca aictate svats 150 DaQ me erin sale Sateen 117 255% 0-1 One mrvaattenaete 216 
Mae Una, Sietehs. anolave 126 Gsct Seen cil arehatel amie 168 YAO dod Meck ee Fe) 1s 441 
Ae Aoeias sale 114, 230 Os PIS Aion ae eee 149 2552 130 veneer 70 
Ape Rete creielecs. cee ot 150 OT So at tern 174 

ie oa eee 206, 208 Ae? tl Selden Sides OO i CHRONICLES— 

BNO eccrine tickie micitte 209 IB PRR pate a Bey ha 204 Ln9 5 At aseistovatenctot teks 296 
Te A ae anne 437 PA RG WAALS st eerie tic 97 LAO ee eames ees 335 
Re ieee ao eat 151 LOU Deron oh ver Re ertons ar 205 i LO ike tee teeta 131 

RTL Te | eels, ee 199 AS BTS ee ey ae 131 

1 Kincs— La aes Ae chorea cee 189 ME AEE Rae boy «neg Sy Be 114 
SE goad tea eee 111 MA BK T4e eles ce 100, 101 (RW AM Mn Mes, 6 RGR tele 407 
BS ee fie ee ack 171 TE Se ea ert ene a 212 Soca h Dyn cee ae ee ens cree 126 
3 Git 6 linc SEA Siar ae i Page 206 S19 See ea cere 95 Los Orie cere eee 88 
le, Ae epee 31 se Re) mae et te 423 DU Ga Fae Oca 32 
Noe 3 dk 185 LE RPI Sie A OIN oP 417 PAW CAV AS TAA RSI akan 151 
(he Tee ae ee Nt Ral pem 344 151-27 Maz AE Tet hae Ra terre de ktoas A n4 342 
2 es: 114, 230, 417 1514-235. epee 423 PALE ba Rae ie ae Me ar te 179 
(apy Wace Sao See eae 416 D508 19 Saehas Saoteee - 65, 66 
fee 3: Sap ee eee 210, 211 US 29 acer arate 428, 430 2 CHRONICLES— 

PAYS eae 210 153729 (30 C8 are 66, 427 WS AOU ac cicaimes oie 211 
ohn AG OA ea ee 211 LS RS let cree eee 423 fbn i Crier eee Begh | 416 
Dey tat htate ots ta«  slievs 212 165-0 eee ctotie heen 423 Iii La cine gk GOR At 184 
Beier lo ol, oor. 211 UG TOES iceeerree 66, 427 SA cyst ncyaarclatcese ate 210 

Ait. SO Ge ee 168 11G32: 1 OJ Gite cp tetera ok Site Aine cates ee eee OD 
ERY ida 211 LOW 14 sin eee aereaccn nr 211 LES atO Se Rre oe wens 96 
A Sek ca ae 210 Lia eacas ue Tae 427 sR IE ¥ hess, Peres Sehiatsien 415 


WIIWIANADAURLEWBWHWHYE 


568 INDEX OF SCRIPTURE PASSAGES 
2 CHRONICLES— PAGE ISAIAH— PAGE 
19:3 S=Jeni A eee a 342 Bis 4s eee as ae 102 ae are . 484 
PO Be pee era ls 418 39 tO wks aie capi 10:9. .67, 87, 131, "419, 429 
Rh Pet epee on piri yea 8" . 68 DQuL esl Sidecar 101455 re es koe 
10 : 28-32... «eee 430 
Ezra— 1121-8. o.eseecpeens 200 
ae BA stipe: Chek 446 et: 411.4:6-93 Vicente 310° a 
PAM |! eras mean nic 179 146, 147, 14g 14:9-11.... 196, 487, 490 
© Bab b Rares is GA. vey es 217 LS od ee ee eee 131 
Bie De eh ek amt oars 438 13 C2 seas a 423 
MELO ds Gea cens e 439. Sy M19 ya ease 1D co ceeteecrete < eeipranete 449 
SS TO a eae wee 216 oD USL Rec. tie ee be eee aes & hip 2 Vbelelee ate 
Rogge wie: ND YL Bs SOE oo eee : 19°: 49-22 5 Cia nen 
: ZO RS Arne eee 45, 67, 430 
NEHEMIAH 90 -e eS Pee 1020s sere a ee 22290 Saves clive SOME On 
Deas via £33,208) So LOMO NH optaaee a eets 27 sf Oh ae oes ois Sas 
PUK ieee even tateae 49°53) 40 = 26a) ae ee $0 7a ie eaenes 274 
1A She eee 216° Sete gph gees ras Umea BB Was ea ete ean 
2109S. ee acenene 449 AB 8 Bice cha Sere, 400 Re OG 
3, 4/863 7 ePa eG 96: YSIS ALT one eae 36; STR eee 67, 434 
Poi IS Fer Se ak Aa Sie, 218 aS eee ele AQ oe chaie emeren te ae a een 
Fe a a eee Ge ap eck BAG OES TA SS. ese Cae ere ST SSL crete BP Se 438 
aN EE Sih Rtn Af OPE 449-0 ONT S98) re eee Ke ey res 437 — 
RIT Mt occhat Nah sas 430, 451.55 (18 5240 Oe See eee 40-55 see eee .» 443. 
DT ViSL Gis cla haar ne 426 220s 25 AOE Os ete 4D. eS ee eee 174 
DST ORF 24a! Paes ays Wo ea teeta 2 ety lp eae ae! eae Noy 20 Sas meee 306 
i252 cae Pip Tees Man anata! Binge hark eo Fe Selb 15 3 hos, rece ane 
1231540 218 i ape eee Sh fccee . 443 
TS S28 oi tees Pete ie © eee haan Wg Rea NTR uct To. (oe See 443 — 
Say cewk ies sive eee 
EstHEr— EccLrEsIaAstTEs— 9 ss iain eee ae 
BD eines oe Ese 49 6h viete tar ien 3, Hie pee , «ska ee 
SP LOI OSs eerie 173 20 Mes area eer 282 
JOB ee TRA GREP SBT ES ee eee JeREMIAH— 
Lis Soe el eta alysis 2S. UTS OLR Ee ee nen eae Fe) & 6 Pa sion Sloe 
BBL, wale bile e ane PLE BO meet CO Le Sarr 16. esate «oh ean mne 
9°13, 44. omen vaoe 271 Sone eee 484 
y UB oat te cnet) oY erie aR 500 12=15.sizsasn aes 116 
263 1201620 cen eae vo Banat oie ee LL Sm eee E31; vera 188, 215 
28s 2a aut in etoile 469 ee OE SER Ea epee ae * 8 reer ene me enane 48 
pL Ry aaa et Y 455 he te sea Ribera 172 bb pee Sisal 484 — 
29:19; < acute Cween AM Te Re eo: 3 -<ee yaa eee 
SLU er eens AOS) NEES See ee 27. eee 482 
SOV 1A CS neon 170 vdieo EY wees 476 Fs WEARS <cweneae 169 
39.113 sai ean weeps 155 Gi idee ‘ineraee 116 
BLS 19-21 eo tatains 8 273 Reo Pvc 188 
ALS 24s oy Shae ites 152. Tsatag— ee 3 
42:4-6..... OT es . 455 Pd ea sven ee 
11, 34 reer aes 
Paataigse og Go ke eee Re ken eee 1B eer nace a 
OST ree esses ba cmiee 400 2 Ee Baeelemete PRS yl 3 
BAe een 4640 Ss A-B lh dace caus 150 De ae . 33, 69 
LTR Tice cee 460 2 vik ural ovate ya) § lena 
LBA G iia kG mice wit oe 460) 8 AG Oe A Sek nee ee 2; ff... s.60u3 Soe 
19 Ssceine SiR are peta aiete AGT 6 OO aT SE A A Pe iam 14s 195 ges eee 27 
Db 9 isi he, ae os + 22=24., 's sles s oat ae 
CR OR atakY oe aN 165 Te ingle ae Mes eeseeeeeeees MB 
O85, Cea eee ASE FP] MT Gucrn tag ao ee WL fences ives . 1g 
74340, Secure £600) BB a ee BS 2 
743/43; 14S SO} e528 PS Ie eae LAMENTATIONS— ; 
74:13, 14, 16, 17 279 I SE-B a ee t Bie ceitebe ey eal 
BS iseicante: aig ore ae LOU oN 10,.., 2 an 166 


INDEX OF SCRIPTURE PASSAGES 569 


EzEXxIEL— PAGE ZECHARIAH— PAGE Marxk— PAGE 
ee Pe ee oe 69, 70 SE Ue Patek hats ... 482 ee AO ee AR ee.) | 
he Or os SU een 150 (Was Scone BARR Te rif ee Op vase ners is has 234 
Spe Re OUT ss eae pega 165 yi Pt ee Eanes, ... 484 Ce pete Se ee 229, 234 
bel eh ee Oa sous 168 PE Wa ee eA a re 499 
Speed 2 retin te nists 490, 491 MALACHI— iis BARS Ae Aes at ean te 181 
BA Gy ces la cab ew isis 210 2 cid tN tk bang epee 484 (oe Lae cat a hes dae 175 
Tes bcs 83, 407 Da soe ako 229, 234 
16 BOL er anus itera ace a ese: 172 EcCLESIASTICUS— 8 : 27 Ar ACRCHONOM Bree RAC 149 
OGM. dacesaceas ss 40 jii-v, vii, ix, xxiii, xxv, EQ EZ Sas cele ste hue wel 356 
Sei tgieOcesciss css 484 ff. and xxviii ...... 219 pO ae 1 es See te 167 
DA ede ons 4's 172 SOS SU rec ods 501 
in 2 ts ee 319 oe: LEAST ee 181 
“Ot eae 127 ae an St pte ety Cry he eee) 225 
27 OD iereas sins 5.8 8 116 1:33 erg ee 220 12:42 Red ele lele move isvere 181 
i igs & eee area 432, 541 a Ca eas 217 TRUS Lae pk Bah ee 156 
ee 20 ee ae 27 (Ae ee Gia ie | Oe Oye Vee Pentre 227 
SURE 7 Me RIE ape eee nr 31 7:32. 33 eae Soe: 220 Pe eye nr Be Varad wie 156 
7 ae S| eee 487, 490 a eas nae 140 Vao82 wees ere: 153 
gh gD: 0 Rey eee 196 eect 144 16 oS 4S Ser 200 
495 18-17 . occ is 214 iy Fs pan ae ae 100 
45:11, 14.........:. ve 6 eh a 3) 

4623... cess ewes ” MPI ey er oo 113 BOy ace ae 502 

D 23 cack weet 504, 507 
tae a Matraew— Di SG ee eae tals 505 
325,15 ...sseeee ees ke TI eS shane s. 296 Pell ee ake 151 
4229... 0. .seeeees seed SD by a Spee 151 D710 cree sent 181 
Set LA SLi aie ¢ einiscetort 442 4:25 DART eer 229, 234 BD Ae e wise + slelelw late 499 
S225... ..seeee eee ap i 139, 499 hea ee 149 
5:30, 31.....-.005: _ CS | Raper ae 2 167 51 Oodehviied omen aa ee 500 
Ti13.. sss eee eees ah RABE to's cn 181 Rte tan ee ees 148 
Ee Soe a7 CSS) Seaman 215 PET © RA Egle 498 

AEG Fo eh ei a 165 (Sf 1g Pee 106, 114 

HosEa— Nore Deanne o6e 500 Sich ce Reet tote tans 148 
DE Spiess ae ewnegis 154 5 ET ae ae ae, Par 498 TUSIOtE Oe aan 134 
OE eee 282 yA ft AOR PN ee 500 AAS ATAB ha, opts 199 
724, 6, 7.....0eeees 166 Peg IS dacs cna at 499 Pe Rec ita len creer 501 
2 I Re 27 BONG Ale seals tei do 501 ja Ce Praia eo: 181 

TOW OS as oma ean 215 132 OB aeeets 165 

Jortr— LON 29 Sree et siete. 181 DSc 4 Bech ore raiste tare 112 

ot ae Ree ae 151 Of Oo. oc nis 465 152307 0e ee ea 501 
th AS ee eA ee AT 148 15 ohh Re cota 181 

ih: OM Meier er 148 ORD 5 yas eR Bl gs 173 

aa an Getah ke lee 500 Vedi eis sere 500 
cure ror Te Gye et ey ie 468, 499 AS 6 2S meodaecta © aera wien 167 
ete 142 TAC3 oe Oo op ate 181 MF ee yaar s venanes 231 
leh a) es aane tonal 131 16°13 Se ee en 149 ZO IB Gate c,d were eta: 500 
7 14 pepe ramen se aa) Sn 414 18 £26 er ee eee, 499 PALES Pia Bee dav etaie etait 225 
bo ae eras 169 19 F260 Cee 167 AV age her eon as 181 
8 ‘a sowie Cae 178 982 19300 ee eee 501 D2 O45 OO nied c vaelecce 156 
prckerser ee * "415 DF bac inn ee ara wren 18 1 Pee 2130 eee aieteant on ood 
DEGerrereeee po 431, $3 571s) ee 156 O35 546) 31 oa 222 
G4 Ala oe reas 151, 152 rt Ey Pore e .. 200 

Mican— PEP MES y Sait pe eed 164 
1:14.....-.+04. 98, 156 PGR trl Meh aea oie a 156 Joun— 

Sear mae ae 26 3 36.....0eeeeenes 153 20 a ten eee 224 
26: 57...... teneeees 111 3516/36. ctpo es 501 

Naaum— DS.2 2 Bost c toca waletare 200 Ee | Senet ate RRR cp 476 

BiB... eee sees 32, 68 Pea ee CANES gS 149 
Marxk— 429,20. ..ceceeseee 134 

ZEPHANIAH— rer Kroyer 148 AAR ccneees creas 499 

ORL Pee Bue. 215 ey Oe actaaeeiy ... 148 EA RRS OTE ARE TAK | 


570 INDEX OF SCRIPTURE PASSAGES 


Joun— PAGE AcTs— PAGE 1 THESSALONIANS— 
5524. tee cpa eaienout 20°15, 17, fin. oo veeu eee £22. scien 
13:338 yc sccutes wives ADO 20 535, ca Waves essa eee oe 9: sscss ce sil 
a BE (ae AOE eisietandiensie 227 232,29, 22s 5 elcis seal sine eo Q 
DBS 2E a cies slate ste 111 26 C27 cases cane .. 509 


2 THESSALONIANS— 


1S 2T ee uje oe eave 156 26: 14.. Reece | 23: eee 51 

PLN Wee b Pantie! SD “ae 200 a. re ums 

PARAL Sap Rope Aer i'tsice O00 RoMANs— Se nee ee et itt a 

16 ©3+16..0cses eeu ae : 

AcTts— PHILEMON— 

SZ tay sep ceeeat 226 1 CorINTHIANS— AS ahae sph rele ee 

OO we ole dawecs 113 Ee. PRE ec eek : 

eho eer teres 102 S211 Cae 990 Wee eee es 

Tae Rae t APs Semaee a NAL fey Oe aborts te Hepuorned vil! 133.122... eee 

B22 739 cas asia ee ete 34 15% 32 2h acacte ee reeer 240 : i 

Der Lene scorers ere ers 230 7 

O32 oo ecw nae cn 126 2 CorinTHIANS— : eet: ‘eee 

12293 ne age 437 1246, 0.40% WERE SIte e srseecsns oun OER 

LS yO nla chee wet arene 510 SS Lay heaton 6 ocho ere 210 es 

16014 ee ear ats 242 BYE 322 ere 190, 511, 513 REVELATION— 

LIEV Gt Gin eee eek 508 pee U4 Spee ea see eee 

LTRS LT aectente Rapniog 15) GALATIANS— 22 oo cictoln ciate beatae 

17222 ean eee Phas fae 118) 4 ov eeoLO PY ISGh Tei i cae 

17 S92S3 1 haven 236 21ST oa eee Nene 510 2:18-29... ere 

AT 2S Fo a2 See. U8, SO9 K eee a peer intuit Lene 

be 4 fee PR In . 194 PHILIPPIANS— 31-6 Araceae aes & 

Voce estat van 2oO 15:37. Dc ssa cn vem crore K ee Re rie 

Coy hy Aare eee aT: 3:12, tenes 

1S 1 eee ..- 236, 510 CoLossiANs— ce i 16, 14-22... é 

18 42 Soe pate 237, 509 Pesees ae ret Seca e mM ie Pesce tack ape 


1932341), eee 240 Os 13000 3 ee ee S213. sos stares 


INDEX 


Abana, 230 

Abbi-Teshub, makes treaty with Mursil, 86 

Abdi-Hepa, vassal of Amenophis IV, 82 

Abi-Adda, 86 

Abraham, Babylonian account of farmer of 
this name, 123, 316 * 

Abraham, sojourn in Egypt, 36; purchase of 
the cave of Machpelah, 82; home in Meso- 
potamia, 127; sacrifice of Isaac, 188 

“Absalom’s Pillar,” 199 

Abu Haba, Turkish exploration of, 48 

Abu Sharain, site of Eridu, 50 

Abu Shusheh (Gezer), 99 

Abydos, chief town of This, 25 

Acts, archeological light on the book of, 508 

Adab (Bismya), 49, 61 

Adad-nirari III, King of Assyria, 57 

Adad-nirari IV, 65; inscription regarding Syria 
and Palestine, 423 

Adam, Biblical account of, 315; Babylonian 
forms of the name, 294 

Adapa and the fall of man, legend of, 283 

Adimé, 294 

“Admonitions of Ipuwer, The,” 28 

Adzes, 169 

Elia Capitolina, 137, 228 

Africanus, Julius Sextus, Chronigraphiai of, 21 

Agade (Sippar), 57, 61, 294 

Agricultural implements, 150, 151; calendar, 
154 

Agriculture, 150 

Ahab, in confederacy against Shalmaneser III, 
65; palace of, 110 

Ahaz, vassal to Tiglath-pileser IV, 66; altar of, 
214; pays tribute to Tiglath-pileser IV, 427 

Ahmose I, siege of Sharuhen, 125 

Ain es-Sultan (Elisha’s Fountain), 107 

Ain Kades, 101 

Ain Shems (Beth-shemesh), 100 

Ain Sitti Miriam, see Gihon. 

Akkad, derivation of, 62 

Akra, 219 

Alaparos, 293 

Alexander Jannzus, 135, 217, 221 

Alexander the Great, empire of, 33; conquests 
of, 70; death of, 134 

Alexandra, Asmonzan queen, 135 

Alorus, 293 

Altar of incense, 189 

Amanus, source of cedar, 62, 416 

Amelu, 295 


Amempsinos, 292 

Amenemhet I, 82 

Amenemhet III, 28 

Amenophis I, 23, 125 

Amenophis III, 64, 331 

Amenophis III and IV, 29, 64. 

American Exploration Society, 92 

American Palestine Exploration Society, 92 

American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 
237 

American School of Oriental Research in 
Palestine, 108 

Amil-Marduk (Evil-Merodach), 70; inscription 
of, 441 

Amman, 234 

Ammelon, 293 

Ammenon, 293 

Ammienshi, Amorite chieftain, 123, 124 

Ammi-zadugga, reign of, 57 

Amorites, conquests of the, 122; in Western 
Asia, 535 

Amosis I, 29 

Amosis IT, 33 

Anderson, H. J., explorations in Palestine, 92 

Anderson, J. G. C., inscription discovered at 
Antioch, 506 

Andrae, W., exploration at Kalah-Sherghat, 49; 
inscription of Tukulti-Ninib, 56 

Animals, representative of Egyptian tribes, 24; 
domestic, 154 

Anklets, 173 

Antigonus, 136, 221 

Antiochus ITI, 146 

Antiochus IV, 219 

Antipas, 136 

Antiquities, preservation of Egyptian, 19; 
of Babylonian, 43 

Antonia, fortress, 221 

Anu, 283 

Anubanini, King of Lulubi, 61 

Apocrypha, other recent, 524 

Apollophanes, tomb of, 199 

Arad-Sin, King of Larsa, 62 

Aramezans, migration of, 128 

Arandas, successor of Subbiluliuma, 85 

Archeological Institute of America, 108 

Archeological Research, Other Contributions, 
519 

Archelaus, 136 

Areopagus, 236 

Aretas, see Haretat IV. 


571 


572 


Arioch, identified with Arad-Sin and Rim-Sin, 
62 

Aripi, 294 

Aristobulus I and I, 135 

Arnuanta, successor of Dudkhalia, 87 

Arpad, overthrow of, 429 

Arrows, 169 

Artatama I, King of the Mitanni, 83; alliance 
with Thothmes IV, 8&3 

Artatama II, King of the Harri, 84 

Artaxerxes, inscriptions of, 52 

Artaxerxes III, Jews rebel against, 70 

Asarjik, Hittite remains at, 74 

Asenath, wife of Joseph, 34 

Asherim, at Tell es-Safi, 185 

Ashkelon, excavations at, 102 

Ashmolean Museum, 19 

Ashteroth-Karnaim, 231 

Ashtoreth, figures of, at Taanach, 189 

Ashur, 49, 64 

Ashurbanipal, succeeds Esarhaddon, 68; his 
account of his campaign against Tyre, 438; 
proverbs from library of, 467 

Ashur-dan, 55 

Ashur-nasirpal II, records of, ts to, 64; 
military exploits of, 65; advance toward 
Hebrew territory, 418 

Ashur-rim-nishishu, King of Assyria, 57, 64 

Ashur-uballit, King of Assyria, 64 

Asia, churches of, 237 

Asmonean coins, 180 

Asmonzans, 135 

Assumptionist Fathers, excavations at Jeru- 
salem, 111; collection of flint implements, 118 

Assurbanipal, invasion of Egypt, 32 

Assyria, wars with Egypt, 32; the land, 42; 
explorations in, 45, ff.; relations to Baby- 
lonia, 63; early period of, 64; second period 
of, 65 

Assyrian code of laws, 389 

Atbara, 18 

Athenz Polias, temple of, 241 

Athens, 235 

Aton, 29; Egyptian hymn in praise of, 463 

Atys, worship of, 242 

Augustus, temple to, at Samaria, 194 

Awls, 168 

Axes, 168 

Azariah (Uzziah), 425 

Azekah, excavation at, 96 

Aziru, Amorite king, 85, 128, 331 


Babylon, capture of, 443 

Babylonia, the land, 42; exploration by Har- 
per and Banks, 49; historical periods, 59; 
early period, 63; Persian period, 70; psalms 
from, 458; proverbs from, 467 

Babylonian column, 54 

Babylonian creation epic, 251, 267; account of 
the flood, 299; Song of songs, 473; Book of 
Lamentations, 495 

Babylonian exile, 69; termination of, 133 

Bacchides, Syrian general, 140 


INDEX 


Bactria, secedes from the empire of the Seleu- ae 
cide, 71 

Bagoses, general of Artaxerxes III, 70 

Baking-trays, 166 

Balata, 107 ; 

Ball, C. J., decipherment of Hittite inscrip- _ 
tions, 75; translation of Babylonian poem, 
452 

Banks, Edgar J., exploration in Babylonia, 49 

Barada, 230 

Bar Chocaba, 137 

Baris, castle of, 220 

Barsalnunna, 295 

Baskets, 169 

Bath, 174 

Beads, 172 

Beautiful gate, 226 — 

Bees, 155 

Behistun inscription of Darius, I, 54 

Beisan, excavation at, 115 

Beit Jibrin, caves at, 121 

Bel (Enlil), god of Nippur, 59; Babylonian 
hymn to, 461 

Belshazzar, son of Nabuna’id, 442 

Ben-Hadad in league with Ahab, 65 

Benjamin of Tudela, explorations of, 44 

Bega, 177 

Bergama, 240 % 

Berossos, list of Babylonian kings, 58; Baby- : 
lonian priest, 267; list of kings, 292 

Bethesda, Pool of, 226 

Beth-Ninib (Beth-shemesh), 101 % 

Beth-shemesh, excavations at, 100; capture of, 
132; walls of, 141; gates of, 145; burial caves 
at, 196 

Bezetha, hill, 228 

Birds, 155 

“Bishop Gobat’s School,”’ 207 F 

Bismya (Adab), mound of, 49; Luguldaudu, 
King of, 61 

Blanche-Garde, fortress of the Crusaders, 97 h 

Bliss, Frederick J., excavations at Lachish, 95 

Boghaz Koi, excavations at, 73; Hittite king- 
dom at, 83; the “Hittite City,” 84 

Bor (Tyan), 88 

Bork, Ferdinand, 
language, 76 - 

Botta, Paul Emil, exploration of Nineveh, 4s 

Bowls, 166 

Bracelets, 172 

Breasted, Henry James, accession of Mena, 
Ancient Records, Egypt, 82, 410 

British Museum, trustees direct excavation 
Carchemish, 74 

Bruce, James, 20 

Brugsch, H., History of Egypt, 82; inscrij 
tion at Elephantine, 331 a 

Briinnow, R., studies in the Mitanni Lingua ae ‘ 
153 explorations i in Edom, 94 Pa 

Bubastis, capital of Shishak dynasty, ) ore 

Bulghar-Maden, Hittite remains at, 74 ‘ 

Burckhardt, J. L., explorations in Palestine, 

Burial customs, 196 F 


studies in the Miteam 


INDEX 


Burnaburiash, 64 

Burnouf, Eugéne, 53 

Butler, H. C., explorations in Syria, 117, note; 
excavations at Sardis, 243 


Cab, 174 

Cain, list of descendants, 297 

Cairo, 17, 19 

Calah, made capital of Assyria, 64 

Calendar, 154 

Calvary, site of, 227 

Cambyses, son of Cyrus, 33; extends power of 
Persia, 70 

Canaanites, migration of the, 124 

Capernaum, identification of, 106 

Caphtor, home of the Philistines, 131 

Captivity, Babylonian, 69 

Carchemish, excavations at, 74; alliance with 
Assyria, 87 

Carthaginian law regarding sacrifices, 400 

Cataracts of the Nile, 18 

Carter, Howard, discovery by, 30 

Cave-dwellers, 158, 203 

Caves of the stone age, 119 

Chaldean Empire, 69 

Chalice of Antioch, the, 513 

Champollion, Jean Francois (Le Jeune), 21, 22 

Chaplin, Thomas, description of weight from 
Samaria, 176 

Charles, B. B., explorations in Asia Minor, 74; 
Travels and Studies in the Nearer East, 77 

Chateaubriand, explorations in Palestine, 91 

Chedorlaomer, 321 

Cheops, 25 

Child sacrifice, 180 

Chisels, 168 

Chosroes II, captures Jerusalem, 137 

Christian Nubians, 40 

Church of the Holy Sepulcher, 227 

Churches of Asia, 237 F 

Cistern burial, 196 

Cities, topography of Palestinian, 139; situated 
near springs, 202 

City gates, 145 

Clark, Herbert, 176 

Clay, A. T., Babylonian Texts from the Yale 
Collection, 444; Amorites in Western Asia, 
535 

Clermont-Ganneau, explorations in Palestine, 
94, 95, 214; Moabite Stone, 421 

Code of Hammurapi, 340 

Coins, 178; Roman, 181 

“Columbarium,” 198 

Combs, 172 

Conder, Lieut.-Col. C. R., The Hittites and 
Their Language, 76; survey of Palestine, 94 

Constantine, interest in holy places, 90, 91, 137 

Constantinople, tablets hoarded in, 50 

Cor (Homer), 174 

Corinth, 236 

Corners, considered sacred, 144 

Cossexans, see Kassitles. 

Cowley, A. E., hieroglyphic Hittite, 80 


573 


Creation, epic of 251; compared with first 
chapter of Genesis, 267; second account of, 
found at Babylon, 275; compared with sec- 
ond chapter of Genesis, 276; new Baby- 
lonian account of, 271, 272; another Sume- 
rian account of, 279 

Creation and flood, Nippur account of, 304 

Cremation, 195 

Croesus, temple of, 239; wealth of, 243; over- 
thrown by Cyrus the Great, 179, 443 

Cromlech (heap of stones), 119 

Cros, Gaston, explorations of, 47 

Crucifixion, site of the, 227 

“Cuneiform” characters, origin of, 60 

Curetonian and Sinai Syriac Manuscripts, 527 

Cybele, worship of, 242; temple of, 244. 

Cyprus, seal of Sargon found in, 61 

Cyrus the Great, founder of Persian empire, 33; 
conquests of, 70; overthrows Croesus, 179, 
443; captures Sardis, 243; inscription, 445 


Dalman, Gustaf H., explorations in Petra, 94 

Damascius, a neoplatonic philosopher, 267 

Damascus, 229, 427 

Danaoi, migration of, 129 

Daniel, book of, 444 

Daphne, 39 

Darics, 179 

Darius I, rule in Egypt, 33; inscriptions of, 52; 
extends power of Persia, 70; coinage of, 179 

Darius the Mede, 444 

David, conquests of, 133; captures Jebus, 204; 
Tower of, 222 

Decapolis, description of, 229 

de Gounillac, 51 

Delitzsch, Friedrich, development of Hittite 
grammar, 78 

Deutscher Paldstina-Verein, 104 

Diatessaron of Tatian, the, 529 

Dilmun, 309 

Dion, 232 

Domazewsky, 
Edom, 94 

Domestic animals, 154 

Doorway tombs, 198 

Dor, excavations at, 132 

Drachma, 181 

Drovetti, M., collection of, 22 

Dudkhalia, successor of Hattusil TI, 89 

Didu, 331 

Dulcimer, 171 

Dung Gate, 218 

Dungi, King of Babylonia, 62 

Dushratta, a king of Mitanni, 73; two El- 
Amarna letters from, 75; contemporary with 
Amenophis IV, 83; death of, 84 

“Dynastic tablets,” 56 


Alfred von, explorations in 


Ea, 283 

Eannatum, King of Lagash, 60 
Early Assyrian period, 64 
Early Babylonian period, 63 
Earth-graves, 197 


574 


Ebed-Ashera, Amorite king, 128 

Ebed-Hepa, 203; letters of, 403; history of, 407 

Ecbatana, visited by Rawlinson, 54 

Ecclesiastes, parallel to, 472 

Ecclesiasticus, 219 

Eclipse at Nineveh, 55 

Egypt, the land, 17; history of, 21, 23; division 
of, 24; Roman period, 34; Hyksos invasion 
of, 35; period of the Oppression and the 
Exodus, 37; Jewish colony in, 447; psalms 
from, 462; parallels to Song of Songs from, 
473; prophecies of, 479; social conscience in, 
483; wisdom literature of, 486 

Egyptian Papyri, 532 

Eisen, Gustavus A., 
of Antioch, 514 

Elam, invasion of, during reign of Kurigalzu, 
63 

El-Amarna letters, 36, 64; from Dushratta, 73; 
Palestinian cities mentioned in, 127; source 
of information regarding Jerusalem, 203; 
selections from, 329-330; from Rib-Adda of 
Gebal, 402; from Ebed-Hepa of Jerusalem, 
403; reflecting conditions in Palestine, 406 

Elamites, subjugated by Eannatum, 60; invade 
Babylonia, 64 

Elephantine, papyri discovered at, 29, 447 

EI-Gib, 146 

Elisha’s Fountain, 107 

“Floquent Peasant, The,” 28, 483 

El-Wad, 201 

Eni-Teshub, King of Carchemish, 87 

Enlil, 305; see also Bel. 

Enmeduranki, King of Sippar, 294, 298 

Enmeirgan, 296 

Enmenunna, 295 

Enoch, identified with Etana, 295 

Enosh, 295 

En-rogel, 202 

Enrolment of Quirinius, 502 

Entemena, successor of Eannatum, 61 

Enu-ilu, King of Hamath, 88 

Ephah, 174 

Ephesus, 237 

Ephraim, gate of, 218 

Epic of creation, text of, 251 

Epiphanius, on measures, 174, 175 

Epistles, archzological light on the, 510 

“Eponym Canon,” 417 

“Eponym Lists,” 55 

Erech, exploration at, 46, 49; dynasties of, 58; 
founding of, 59 

Eridu, 59, 309 

Esarhaddon, invasion of Egypt, 32; succeeds 
Sennacherib, 68; money in reign of, 179; 
kings conquered by, 438 

Eski Hissar, 246 

Etana, 294; identified with Abel, 298 

Etruscans, relation to Lydians, 243 

Eumenes I, 240 

Euphrates river, 42 

Eusebius, Chronicon of, 21; list of Palestinian 
names, 91, 149 


interpretation of Chalice 


INDEX 


Evil-Merodach (Amil-Marduk), 70; inscription 
of, 441 

Exile, Babylonian, 69; termination of, 442 

Eye-paint, 172 

Eyuk, Hittite monuments at, 84 

Ezekiel, 69 


Fahl, 232 

Famine, the seven years of, 331 

Feast of Marduk and Zarpanit, 281 

Feeding-bottles, 166 

Fibule, 172 

Files, 169 

Fish Gate, 215 

Fisher, Clarence S., 38; excavation at Beisan, 
115 

Fish-hooks, 170 

Flesh-hooks, 167 — 

Flood, Babylonian account of, 299; comparison 
with the Biblical account of, 303; second 
Babylonian account of, 303 

Forks, 167 

Foundation sacrifices, 144 

Fountain Gate, 218 

Frank, Carl, hieroglyphic Hittite, 80 

Fraktin, Hittite remains at, 74 

Fruits, 152 

“Furnaces, Tower of the,” 218, 


Gadara, 232 
Gallio, 509 
Garstang, John, excavations at Ashkelon, 102 
Gate, see descriptive name. 
Gateways, 145 
Gath (Tell es-Safi), 97; walls of, 140 
Gebal, excavations at, 132 
Gebel Fureidis, 136, 147 
Gennath, gate of, 227 
Genouillac, H. de, exploration at Ukhaimir, a 
Gerasa, topography of, 139, 232 
Gerizim, Mount, 134 
Genner- Durand, Pére, 175 
Gethsemane, Garden of, 153, 226-227 
Gezer, excavations at, 98; caves at, 119; walls 
of, 124, 140; besieged by Merneptah, 130; 
captured by the Hebrews, 132; gates of, 145: 
pottery at, 158, 161; weights found at, 176 
sanctuary at, 183; high place of, 185; temple 
at, 191-192; ‘tombs at, 195 § 
Giaour-Kalesi, Hittite remains at, 74 
Gibeah, burning of, 109 
Gibeon, water supply of, 146 
Gihon, springs at, 93, 202; caves at, 111, 12 
Gilgal (menhirs set in a circle), 119; burial in, 
196 . 
Gilgamesh, epic, 276 ~ 
Glassware, 166 
Gobryas, 444 
Golgotha, site of, 227 we 
Gordon, Gen. C. E., suggestion regarding 
Golgotha, 227 is 
Gospel and Revelation of Peter, the, 530 
Granaries, 150 


INDEX 


Green, William Henry 297 

Grenfell, B. P., and A. S. Hunt, discovery of 
Oxyrhynchus papyri, 40, 498 

Griffith, F. L., 41 

Grinding, 151 

Grotefend, Georg Friedrich, interpretation of 
inscriptions found at Persepolis, 53 

Gudea, ruler at Lagash, 62; rebuilds Eninnd, 
416 

Guérin, H. V., explorations in Palestine, 92 

Gurun, Hittite remains at, 74 

Guthe, H., excavations in Jerusalem, 104 

Gutium, dynasty of, 58; hordes from, overrun 
Babylonia, 62 

Gyges, dynasty of, 179 


Habiri, 128, 204, 407 

Hadrian, restores Jerusalem under name of 
Elia Capitolina, 228 

Haggai, assists in rebuilding the temple, 133 

Hall, C. R., 51 

Hamadan (Ecbatana), visited by Rawlinson, 
54 

Hamath, Hittite kingdom at, 87; overthrow of, 
429 

Hammath, explorations at, 114 

Hammeah, tower of, 218 

Hammers, 169 

Hammurapi, laws of, 49; King of Larsa, 57, 
62; conqueror of Babylonia, 63; conquest of 
the “west land,” 123; identified with Am- 
raphel, 320; code of, 340 

Hananel, tower of, 218 

Hananiah, Passover letter of, 450 

Haran, possibly a Hittite capital, 83 

Haretat IV, Nabathean king, 190; besieges 
Jerusalem, 221; inscription regarding, 512 

Harper, Robert, exploration in Babylonia, 49 

Harps, 171 

Harri, become part of Subbiluliuma’s kingdom, 
84 


Hasmonezans, see Asmoneans. 

Hattusil I, King of Boghaz Koi, 84 

Hattusil II, successor of Mutallu, 86 

Hawara, 28 

Haynes, John H., Babylonian explorations of, 
48 

Head, B. V., date of ancient coins, 178 

Hebrew Text, fragments of, 520; of Ecclesi- 
asticus, 522 

Hebrews, migration of, 131 

Hebron, possessed by the Hittites, 82 

Helena, mother of Constantine, 227 

Helena of Adiabene, tomb of, 199 

Heliopolis, 36 

Hens, 155 

Herod Agrippa I, 136 

Herod the Great, rebuilds the Jewish temple, 
136; capture of Rabbah Ammon, 146; coin- 
age of, 181; building in Jerusalem, 221 

Herodotus, on early navigation, 33; on wars 
between Egypt and Assyria, 33; comparison 
with 2 Kings, 436 


575 


Hezekiah, threatened by Sennacherib, 67, 434; 
improvements made by, 214 

High places, 184 

Hill, G. F., on Palestinian coins, 180 

Hilprecht, Herman V., Babylonian explora- 
tions of, 48 

Hin, 174 

Hincks, Edward, 53 

Hinnom, valley of, 201, 215 

Hippacus, tower of, 222, 228 

Hippos, 231 

Hittite code of laws, 369 

Hittites, invade Babylonia, 63; monuments of, 
72; theories concerning, 72; ethnology of, 78; 
stock and language, 80; history of, 81 

Hoes, 150 

Hogarth, D. H., excavations, site of ancient 
Carchemish, 74 

Homer, The Odyssey, 85 

Homer, a measure, 174 

Hophra, lures Judah to destruction, 33; palace 
of, at Memphis, 39 

Horam, King of Gezer, 132 

Horites, 121 

Horse, domestication of the, 79 

Horse Gate, 218 

Hoshea, rebels against Assyria, 66, 427 

Houses in ancient Palestine, 142 

Howe, Fisher, suggestion about Golgotha, 227 

Hull, Edward, geological survey of the valley 
of the Dead Sea, 95 

Human sacrifice, 188 

Hunt, A. S., discovery of Oxyrhynchus papyri, 
40, 498 

Huntington, Ellsworth, 101 

Hyksos, invasion of Egypt, 28, 35, 125; pos- 
sibly Hittites, 81 

Hystaspes, father of Darius, 53 


Tlu-bidi (Yau-bidi), 88 

Ilumailu, founder of the second dynasty of 
Babylon, 63 

Tlu-shumma, King of Assyria, 56 

Ina-uzni-eréSu, 295 

Ipuwer, Egyptian sage, 486 

Trad, 298 

Irhulina, King of Hamath, 88 

Ishmi-Dagan, 55 

Ishtar, on coins, 179; Babylonian prayer to, 
459 

Israel, the northern kingdom, 133 

“Tsrael,”? name found in Babylonia, 326 

Ivriz, Hittite remains at, 74 


Jacob, historical study of the name, 325 

Jacobel, 126, 127 

Jars, 158 

Jastrow’s translation of Assyrian code of laws, 
389 

Jebeil, 116 

Jebus, 204 

Jehoahaz, deposed by Necho, 33 

Jehoash, breaks wall of Jerusalem, 212 


576 


Jehoiachin, imprisoned by Nebuchadrezzar, 70 

Jehoiakim, rebellion of, 69 

Jehu, pays tribute to Shalmaneser IIT, 65 

Jensen, Peter, studies in the Hittite and the 
Mitanni languages, 76 

Jerabis, site of ancient Carchemish, Hamath, 
etc., 76 

Jerash, temple at, 194; ruins at, 233 

Jericho, excavations at, 106; walls of, 124; 
capture of, 132; topography of, 139; area of, 
141; remains of buildings, 143 

Jeroboam, 31; name on seal, 417 

Jerome, Onomasticon, 91, 149 

Jerusalem, sieges and destruction of, 69; cap- 
tured by Orodes I, 136; besieged by Pompey, 
135; destroyed by Titus, 136; captured by 
the Persians, 137; passes under Moham- 
medan control, 137; area of, 141; water 
supply of, 145; rock altar at, 184; topography 
of, 201; in the time of Solomon, 206; de- 
struction of, by Nebuchadrezzar, 215; 
walls of, rebuilt, 218; capture of, by Ptolemy 
I, 219; during the Asmonzan period, 220; 
construction during reign of Agrippa I, 228 

Jesus, in the Decapolis, 234; reputed sayings 
of, found in Egypt, 498 

Jewish colony in Egypt, 447 

Joab, captures Rabbah, 233 

Job, Babylonian parallel to, 452 

John Hyrcanus, conquers Samaria and Edom, 
110, 135; coinage of, 181; builds palace in 
Jerusalem, 220; supplies Jerusalem with 
water, 221 

John Hyrcanus IT, 135 

Johns, C. H. W., 179 

Jordan, Julius, exploration at Warka, 49 

Joseph, texts bearing on story of, 34, 329; 
historical study of the name, 326 

Josephel, 126, 127 

Josephus, story of Onias, 40; on measures, 173 

Joshua, conquest of Palestine, 132 

Jovanoff, Alexander, numismatist of Con- 
stantinople, 75 

Judah, the southern kingdom, 133 

Judas Maccabeus, 134 

Judges, period of, 410 

Justus, house of, 237 


Kadashman-turgu, 64 

Kadesh, battle at, 86 

Kadesh-Barnea, identification of, disputed, 101 

Kalah-Sherghat, exploration at, 49 

Kanatha, 231 

Kara-Bel, Hittite remains at, 74 

Karaburna, Hittite remains at, 74 

Kara Dagh, Hittite remains at, 74 

Karaindash, King of Babylon, 64 

Karanog, exploration of, 41 

Kara Su, 73 

Karnak, temple of, 38 

Kassites, invade Babylonia, 63; migration of 
the, 124 

Kenan, 295 


INDEX 


Keys, 167 

Khafre, 26 

Khartum, 18 

Khattu land, name given to Hittite settlement 
in Cappadocia, 81 

Kheta, see Hittites. 

Khnum, 331 

Khufu (Cheops), 25 

Kidron, valley of, 201 

King list of Karnak, etc., 22 

Kings, books of, archzological light on, 416 

King’s Gardens, 205 

Kish, exploration at, 50; dynasty of, 58 e. 

Kitchener, H. H., Major and Lord, survey of 
Palestine, 94; surveys in Arabia, 95 ‘ 

Kizil Dagh, Hittite remains at, 74 

Klein, F. A., 421 

Knives, 168 ~~ 

Knudtzon, J. A., Die El-Amarna Tafeln, 329 

Kok (shaft), 198 

Koldewey Robert, Babylonian exploration, 48, — 
69 

Kudur-Mabug, 321 

Kugler, Franz Xaver, astronomical calculation _ 
relating to Assyrian chronology, 56 

Kukukumal, 323 

Kummukh, Hittite kingdom, 87 

Kurigalzu, invasion of Elam during reign of, 63 


Labyrinth, 28 

Lachish, excavations at, 95; walls of, 140 

Lagash, 49; founding of, 59; colonists from, 
found Ashur, 49, 64 

Lamartine, A. M. , explorations i in Palestine, ot 

Lamech, 295 

Lamentation for Tammuz, 490 

Lamentations, Babylonian book of, 495 

Lamp-stands, 167 

Langdon, Stephen, Sumerian Epic of Poradise, 
the Flood, and the Fall of Man, 309; tans 
tion of Babylonian poem, 452 


Laodicea, 246 Bes: 
Larsa, kings of, 57; divided power with Nisin, 
62 


Lassen, Christian, 53 ; 

Lawrence, T. E., explorations in the wilder 
ness of Zin, 101 oe 

Layard, Austen Henry, explorations of, 45; oa ; 
discoveries at Nineveh, 68, 75, 76 

Lebanon, copper from, 62 } 

Leontopolis, Jewish temple at, 39 ; 

Lepton, 181 

Letters from Palestine, 402 

Leviticus, alleged parallel to, 400 

Libertines, Synagogue of, 513 A eae 

Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh, 68 tte 

Liverpool, University of, directs Hittite exe 
ploration, 74 

Loftus, William Kennett, explorations of, 46 — 

Log, 174 

Lotan, 124 

Lowenstern, Isidore, 53 ca 

Lugaldaudu, statue of, 50; King of Adab, 61 


ay as, . 


INDEX 


Lugalzaggisi, 58, 61 

Lydia, origin of coinage in (?), 179; kingdom of, 
242 

Lynch, Lieut. W. F., explorations in Palestine, 
92 

Lyon, D. G., excavations at Samaria, 110 

Lyres, 171 


Macalister, Alexander, anatomist, 120 

Macalister, R. A. Stewart, excavations at 
Gezer, 98; explorations in Ophel, 103; con- 
jecture regarding walls of Gezer, 140 

Maccabean period, 219 

Maccabees, 134 

Maclver, R., exploration at Karanog, 41 

Mackenzie, Duncan, excavations at Beth- 
shemesh, 100 

McCowan, C. C., American School of Oriental 
Research, 108 

Magan, conquered by Naram-Sin, 61; quarries 
at, 62 

Magdol, 35 

Mana, 176 

Manasseh, vassal of Esarhaddon and Ashur- 
banipal, 68 

Manetho, Egyptian priest, 21 

Manishtusu, King of Kish, 49 

Manissia, Hittite sculptures and remains near, 
83, 85 

Marash, Hittite remains at, 74, 98 

Marduk, central figure in Babylonian creation 
epic, 267 

Marduk and Zarpanit, feast of, 281 

Marduknadinakhi, King of Babylon, 55 

Mars’ Hill, 236 

Masterman, E. W. G., estimate of Parker’s ex- 
cavations, 111 

Mattiuaza, made king of the Mitanni, 84 

“Maudsley’s Scarp,” 96, 207 

Measures, 174 

Medeba, taken by Omri, 423 

Megalaros, 293 

Megiddo, battle of, 33, excavations at, 104; 
wall of, 124; topography of, 139; area of, 142; 
remains of buildings, 144; gates of, 145; 
rock altar at, 184; temple at, 192; seal found 
at, 417 

Melamkish, 295 

Memphis, capital of Egypt, 27 

Mena, accession of, 23; reign of, 25 

Menahem, 66 

Menant, Joachim, decipherment of Hittite 
inscriptions, 75 

Menhir (stone columns), 119; burial in, 196 

Menkaure, 26 

Men-nofer, 27 

Merneptah, successor of Ramses II, 31; 
Pharaoh of the Exodus, 31; siege of Gezer, 
129, 130; pillar of, 338 

Merodachbaladan, takes the throne of Baby- 
lon, 67; relations with Hezekiah, 437 

Meroe, 33, 41 

Merrill, Selah, explorations in Palestine, 92 


577 


Meruitensi, 484 

Meselim, King of Kish, 60 

Mesha, King of Moab, 186, 421 

Meskingashir, 295 

Mesopotamian Valley, 42 

Messerchmidt, L., studies in the Mitanni 
language, 77 

Methuselah, 296 

Meyer, Edward, accession of Mena, 23; origin 
of the Philistines, 415 

Meyer, Rudolph, map of Palestine, 92 

Middle Kingdom, period of (Egypt), 27 

Migdol, 35 

Miletus, 238 

Millo, 205, 206 

Millstones, 152 

Mina, 176 

Mitanni, 73; kingdom of, 83 

Mite, coin, 181 

Moabite Stone, 421 

Mohammedans, prevail in Palestine, 137 

Money, 178 

Monoliths, at Gezer, 186 

Mordtmann, A. D., account of Hittite inscrip- 
tions, 75 

Moresheth-Gath (Marash), 74, 98 

Morgan, J. de, exploration at Susa, 49, 340° 

Moriah, Mount, 184; site of the temple, 208 

Mortars, 152 

Mosaic Code, not borrowed from the Baby- 
lonians, 367 

Mosque of Omar, 184 

Moulton, W. J., 108 

Mount, see descriptive name. 

Mukés, 232 

Miiller, W. Max, origin of the Hittites, 73 

Mursil, successor of Arandas, 85; makes treaty 
with the Amorites, 86; death of, 87 

Mutallu, successor of Mursil, 86 

Mutu-elu, 295 

Mutu-Sa-elu, 296 

Mutu-Salal-eqla, 296 


Nabathezans, 190 

Nabopolassar, 69 

Nabuna’id, King of Babylon, 59; inscriptions 
of, 442 

Nails, 169 

Names, Sumerian, with Semitic, Babylonian, 
and Hebrew equivalents, 296 

Napata, 32 

Napoleon I, invasion of Egypt, 20 

Naram-Sin, 58, 61 

Naville, E., excavation of Pithom, 38 

Nebuchadrezzar I, King of Babylon, 64 

Nebuchadrezzar II, defeats Necho, 32, 69; 
destroys Jerusalem, 199; inscriptions of, 439 

Necho, 32, 69, 439 

Necklaces, 172 

Needles, 167 

Nehemiah, rebuilds the walls of Jerusalem, 218 

Nehushtan, 187 

Neo-Babylonian period, 69 


578 


Neolithic implements, 116 

New Testament Manuscripts, other, 527 

Nicanor’s gate, 226 

Niebuhr, Carsten, inscriptions at Persepolis, 52 

Nile, 17 

Nineveh, explored by Botta, Place, and Lay- 
ard, 45; by Rassam and Loftus, 46; by George 
Smith, 46-47; eclipse at, 55; Ashurbanipal’s 
library at, 68; fall of, 491 

Ninkharsag, 304, 315 

Nippur, exploration of, 48; founding of, 59; 
account of creation and flood discovered at, 
304; account of the origin of a city and the 
beginning of agriculture, 309 

Nisin, 57, 58, 62 

Noah, 295, 313 

Nomes, divisions of Egypt, 24 

Noph, 27 

Norden, F. L., 19 

Nubians, Christian, 41 

Nuffar, exploration of, 48 


Odes of Solomon, the, 530 

Odoric, 52 

Odyssey, The, referred to, 85 

Old Egyptian Versions, 528 

Old Gate, 218 

Olive-presses, 153 

Olives, Mount of, 227 

Olmstead, A. T., explorations in Asia Minor, 74 

Omar, Mosque of, 184 

Omer, 174 

Omri, 110, 423, 424 

On, 36; priest of, founder of fifth dynasty, 26 

Onias, 39, 40 

Onomasticon, by Jerome, 91, 149 

Ophel, excavations on, 111, 112; topography of, 
139 

Opis, dynasty of, 57 

Oppert, Jules, explorations of, 46, 54 

Orient-Gesellschaft, Babylonian exploration, 48 

Ornaments, personal, 172 

Ornan, 184 

Orodes I, King of Parthia, 136 

Osorkon II, 31 

Ovens, 165 . 

Oxyrhynchus, papyri from, 40, 498 


Paine, John A., explorations in Palestine, 92 

Palaces of ancient Palestine, 143 

Paleolithic implements, 118 

“Palermo Stone,” 22 

Palestine, physical geography of, 89; Moham- 
medans invade, 137 

Palestine Exploration Fund, 93 

Papyri, discovered at Elephantine, 39; at 
Oxyrhynchus, 40, 498 

Papyrus Ebers, 23 

Parchment, origin of the word, 240 

Parker, Capt., the Hon. Montague, excavations 
in Jerusalem, 111 

Parthia, secedes from the empire of the 
Seleucide, 71 


INDEX 


Peters, John P., Babylonian explorations of, 47; 


Pashe dynasty, succeeds the Kassite dynasty, 

64 tes. 

Paton, L. B., excavations in Jerusalem, 108 

Patriarchs before the flood, 289 

Paul, scene of his missionary activity, 235 

Payim, 177 

Peiser. F. E., decipherment of Hittite inscrip- 
tions, 75 

Pekah, 66, 427 

Peleset (Philistines), 414 

Pella, 129, 232 

Pentateuch, Code of Hammurapi compared 
with, 340; laws of, not borrowed from 
Babylonia, 367 

Perfume-boxes, 172 

Pergamum, 239, 240 

Persepolis, inscriptions at, 53 

Persia, languages of ancient, 52 

Persian period of Babylonia, 70 

Persians, dominant in Palestine, 137 

Pesibkhenno II, 31 


discovery at Beit Jibrin, 117 
Petra, 189, 190 aa 
Petrie, William Matthew Flinders, excavation _ i 

at Tell el-Yehudiyeh, 35, 36; discovery of 

Raamses, 38; of Hophra’s palace, 39; ex- 

cavation at Tell Defenneh, 39; at Lachish, 

95; Egyptian Tales, 328 ee 
Phestos, disc discovered at, 130, 415 
Pharaoh of the Exodus, 31, 388 
Philadelphia, 139, 233, 244 
Philadelphus, 34 
Phileterus, King of Pergamum, 240 
Philip, son of Herod the Great, 136 
Philistia, 89 ¥ 
Philistines, migration of, 130; civilization of, 

132; Ramses III, reference to, 415; Meyer’s 

opinion of origin, 415 . hea 
Pheenicians, weight standards of, 176 
Pilate, Pontius, 136 
Pilikam, 295 
Pillar of Merneptah, 338 eS 
Pillars, at Tell es-Safi, 185; at Taanach, 189 
Pim, 177 aS 
Pinches, Theophilus G., tablets from Erech, 

444 i 
“Pipe,” muscial instrument, 171 
Pithom, 37, 38 
Place, Victor, explorations of, 45 
Plows, 150 
Pococke, R., 19 
Poebel, Arno, 58, 290, 294, 295 
Politarchs, of Thessalonica, 508 
Pompey, siege of Jerusalem, 135, 221 BS 
Pool of Bethesda, 226 ta 
Pools of Solomon, 147 yy 
Potiphar, 34 a 
Pottery, 157; classification of periods, 164 
Pre-Babylonian period, 60 _ 

Prophets, character of the Hebrew, 479 
Proverbs, parallels to book of, 467 
Psalms, from Babylonia and Egypt, 458 


ex 


INDEX 


Psammetik I, 32 

Psammetik II, 447 

Psephinus, tower of, 228 

Ptahhotep, precepts of, 469 

Ptolemaic period, 33 

Ptolemy I, captures Jerusalem, 219 

Ptolemy, Claudius, king list compiled by, 55 

Ptolemy Lagi, 33, 134 

Ptolemy Philadelphus, 34 

Puchstein, Otto, discoveries at Boghaz Koi, 74 

Pul, 65 

Pumpelly, Raphael, explorations in Turkestan, 
79 


Put-akhi, Amorite king, 86 

Pyramids, 25 

Pythian-Adams, W. J., excavations at Ash- 
kelon, 102 ; 


Qaraar, 65 

Quadrans, 181 

Quirinius, archeological light on enrolment of, 
502 


Raamses, built by the Israelites, 37 

Rabbah Ammon, rebuilt and renamed by 
Philadelphus, 34; topography of, 139; site of 
Philadelphia, 233 

Ramsay, Sir William Mitchell, view of Quirin- 
ius’ enrolment, 504 

Ramses II, 30, 37, 73; treaty with Hattusil, 73; 
conquests in northern Syria, 86; Palestinian 
rule of, 129 

Ramses III, 31, 130 

Ramses IV, IX, XII, 31 

Raphana, 231 

Rassam, Hormuzd, explorations of, 46, 47, 68 

Rawlinson, Sir Henry C., explorations of, 46, 
54, 55 

Rehoboam, 31; opposed by Shishak, 137 

Reisner, G. A., excavations at Samaria, 110 

Renan, Ernest, explorations in Palestine, 92 

Rephaim, 119 

Reservoirs, 146 

Retenu (Lotan), 124 

Rich, Claude James, explorations of, 44 

Richardson, Rufus B., excavations at Corinth, 
237 

Rim-Sin, King of Larsa, 62 

Rings, finger, 173; money, 178 

Roads, 148 

Robinson, Edward, explorations in Palestine, 
91 

Robinson, George L., discovery at Petra, 117 

“Robinson’s Arch,” 93, 220 

Rockefeller, John D., 49 

Roman rule of Egypt, 34 

“Rosetta Stone,” 20 


Sacrifices in foundations, 144; human, 188; 
Carthaginian law concerning, 400 

Sacy, Sylvestre de, interpretation of Sassanian 
inscriptions, 53 

Sakje-Geuze, excavations at, 81 


579 


Samal, kingdom of, 87 

Samaria, siege of, 66; excavations at, 110; 
topography of, 139; remains of palaces at, 
143; temple at, 194 

Samaritans, origin of, 134 

Samsuiluna, King of Larsa, 57 

Sarbut el-Khadem, 28 

Sardis, 242-244 

Sargon of Agade, 58, 61; conquests of, 67, 122; 
legend of, 337 

Sargon of Assyria, besieges Samaria, 67 427 

Sarzec, Ernest de, explorations of, 47 

Sassanian dynasty of Persia, 52, 71 

Saturninus, Sentius, 507 

Saul, reign of, 133 

Saws, 168 

Sayce, A. H., theories regarding Hittites, 72; 
decipherment of Hittite inscriptions, 75, 77 

“Scarp, Maudsley’s,” 207 

Scheil, V., exploration of, 48, 57; translation 
of Assyrian code of laws of, 389 

Schick, Dr. Conrad, discoveries in Jerusalem, 
223 

Schmidt, Aage, discoveries at Shiloh, 116 

Schmidt, Nathaniel, explorations in Palestine, 
108 

Schroeder, Otto, translation of Assyrian code 
of laws, 389 

Schumacher, Gottlieb, explorations in Pales- 
tine, 94; excavations at Megiddo, 104, 140 

Scythians threaten Assyria, 68 

Scythopolis, 230 

Seah, 174 

Seals, 170; found at Megiddo, 417 

Sebaste, see Samaria. 

Second Assyrian period, 65 

Sela, 189 

Seleucus, King of Babylonia, 71 

Sellin, Ernst, excavations at Taanach, 105, 140; 
excavations at Jericho, 106; excavation at 
Balata, 108 

Semites, first inhabitants of Mesopotamia, 59 

Sendjirli, excavations at, 73 

Seneferu, 25 

Sennacherib, 32; discovery of seal at Babylon, 
56; succeeds Sargon, 67; his account of his 
campaigns, 432 

Seplel, see Subbiluliuma. 

Septuagint, translation of, 34 

Sesostris, monarchs of Middle Kingdom, 27 

Seth, 295; list of descendants, 297 

Seti I, 29; campaigns against Palestine, 86; 
conquests in Asia, 129 

Shabatum, 282 

Shaft tombs, 197 

Shalmaneser I, 64 

Shalmaneser III, campaigns of, 65; oppression 
of Palestine, 418 

Shalmaneser V, 64 

Shamash-shumukin, 68 

Shamshi-Adad, 55 

Shamshi-Adad IV, 65 

Shamsu-ditana, King of Babylon, 81 


580 


Shamsu-iluna, successor of Hammurapi, 123 

Sheba, 441 

Shechem, captured by Sesostris Ill, 28 

Sheep Gate, 218 

Shema, seal of, 192 

Sheol, 487 

Shephelah, borderland between Judea and 
Philistia, 96, 100, 202 

“Shepherd Kings,” 28 

Sheshonk, see Shishak. 

Shiloh, discoveries at, 116 

“Shinar” (Sumir), 62 

Shishak, 31; record of his campaign in Pales- 
tine, 38, 133, 417 

Shithu-elu, 295 

Shur, 101 

Shushan, 49 

Shutarna I, successor of Artatama I, 83 

Siamon, 31 

Sicilians, migration of, 130 

Sickles, 151 

Siloah, 205 

Siloam inscription, 437 

Simon the Maccabee, coinage of, 180 

Sin, the moon-god, Babylonian hymn to, 460 

Sinaitic Manuscript, the, 526 

Sinuhe, adventures of, 123, 334 

Sippar (Agade), temple at, 58 

Slousch, Nahum, explorations at Hammath, 114 

Smith, Eli, explorations in Palestine, 91 

Smith, George, explorations of, 46 

Smyrna, Hittite sculptures and remains near, 
82, 85; general account of, 245 

Solomon marries daughter of Pharaoh, 31 
empire of, 133; Pools of, 147, 221; buildings 
of, 208 

Song of Songs, Egyptian parallels to, 473; a 
Babylonian parallel, 476 

““Sothic Cycle,” 22 

Spatule, for eye-paint, 172 

Spears, 170 

Sphinx, 26 

Spinning “whorls,” 167 

Spoons, 166 

Springs, favorite sites for cities, 202 

“Stele of the vultures,” 60 

Step Pyramid, 25 

Stone age in Palestine, 118 

Styli, 170 

Sub-Apostolic Writings, 531 

Subbiluliuma, extends power of the Hittites, 
83; deposes Sutatarra, 84; Amorites con- 
quered by, 128 

Sumerian, early language of Babylonia, 55 

Sumerian names, with Semitic Babylonian and 
Hebrew equivalents, 296 

Sumerians, ethnology of, 59, 60 

Sumir, derivation of, 62 

Sun-god, Egyptian hymn to the, 462 

Susa, exploration at, 49 

Sutarna II, King of the Harri, 84 

Sutatarra, successor of Dushratta, 84 

Swords, 170 


INDEX 


Synagogue floor inscription at Ain Duk, 113 
“Synagogue of the Hebrews” in Corinth, 237 
Sypilus, Mount, 74 


Taanach, excavations at, 105; walls of, 140; 
buildings at, 143; pillars and altar of in- 
cense at, 189; letter from, 408 

Tabu-utul-Bél, 455 

Takku, 278, 313, 314, 315 

Tahpanhes, castle at, 39 

Talbot, Fox, 54 

Tale of the Eloquent Peasant, 483 

Tale of Sinuhe, 334 

Tale of the Two Brothers, 326, 327 

Tamerlane, 243 

Tammuz, lamentation for, 490, 491 

Tanut-amon, 32 

Tashji, Hittite remains at, 74 

Taylor, J. E., explorations of, 46 

Tell Defenneh, 39 

Tell el-Hesy (Lachish), 95, 125 

Tell el-Jazar, excavations at, 98 

Tell el-Judeideh, excavations at, 96 

Tell el-Retabeh, site of Raamses, 38 

Tell el-Yehudiyeh, 40 

Tell es-Safi, 97, 125, 140, 185 

Tell Hum (Capernaum), 106 

“Tell of the Jewess ,” 40 

Tell Sandahanna (Marash), 98; weight found 
at, 178 

Tell Taanek, see Taanach. 

Tell Zakariya (Azekah), 96 

Temple, Solomon’s, site of, 184; description of, 
209; building of the second, 216; Herod’s, 223 

Temple at Gezer, 191, 192 

Temple to Augustus at Samaria, 194 

Temple of Jewish colony in Egypt, 447 

Thakut, 35 

Thebes, nome of, 27 

Thekel, migration of, 130, 131 

Thenius, Otto, suggestion regarding Golgotha, 
227 

Thessalonica, politarchs of, 508 

Thiersch, Hermann, discovery at Beit Jibrin, 
117 

This, nome of, 25 

Thompson, R. Campbell, 50; decipherment of 
Hittite inscriptions, 78 

Thothmes I, 30; raids through Palestine, 125, 
126 

Thothmes III, 29, 83, 126 

Thothmes IV, alliance with Artatama I, 83 

Threshing, 151 

Thyatira, 242 

Ti, tomb of, 26 

Tiamat, 268, 271, 272 

Tiberius, coinage of, 181 

Tiglath-pileser I, 55, 64 

Tiglath-pileser IV, conquests of, 66, 424 

Tigris river, 42 

Timur (Tamerlane), 243 

Tirhakah, 32, 68 

Tiuman, King of Elam, 482 


INDEX 


Tobler, Titus, explorations in Palestine, 92 

Toi, King of Hamath, 87 

Tombs, 197 

“Tombs of the Judges,” 198 

“Tombs of the Kings,” 199, 228 

Topheth, 215 

Tou, see Toi. 

Towers, 218 

Toys, 171 

Trajan, 149; organizes province of Arabia, 190 

Travel, between Babylonia and Palestine, 319 

Trumbull, Henry Clay, identification of 
Kadesh-Barnea, 101 

Tukulti-Ninib I, 56, 64 

“Turin Papyrus,” 22 

Tutankhamen, tomb of, 30 

Two Brothers, Tale of the, 326, 327, 328 

Tyana, Hittite capital, 88 

Tyropcean valley, 215 


Ukhaimir, exploration at, 50; work at, 51 
Umm Keis, 232 

Ummanu, 295 

Uni, officer of Pepi I, 122 

University Museum, Philadelphia, 57 
Upper Retenu, 124 

Ur, founding of, 59; kings of, 57, 58 
Urkagina, King of Lagash, 61 

Ur-Nina founds dynasty at Lagash, 60 
Utensils, 165 

Uzziah, 212, 425 


Valley Gate, 218 

Van Dyke, Henry, reference to Felix, 499 
Vincent, Hughes, 107, 111 

Vineyards, 153 

Virgin’s Fountain, 104 


Wady Maghara, turquoise mines in, 25 

Walls of Palestinian cities, 124, 139, 141, 218 

Ward, William Hayes, Babylonian explorations 
of, 47 

Warka, exploration at, 49 

Warren, Gen. Sir Charles, excavations at 
Jerusalem, 93; at Gihon, 111 

Washington Manuscript, the, 527 

Water Gate, 218 


581 


Water supply in Palestine, 145 

Weidner, Ernst, 78 

Weights, 176 

Weill, Captain, excavations on Ophel, 111, 113 

Wenamon, report of, 132, 410 

Whetstones, 169 

White Wall, 27 

Wilderness of Zin, explorations in, 101 

Winckler, Hugo, excavations at Boghaz Koi, 
73, 85; first instalment of the El-Amarna 
letters, 75 

Winckler und Abel, Thoutafelnfund von El- 
Amarna, 330 

Wine-vats, 153 

Winnowing, 151 

Wisdom of Jesus, the Son of Sirach, 219 

Wood, J. T., discoveries in Ephesus, 239 

Woolley, C. Leonard, 81, 101 

Worrell, W. H., American School of Oriental 
Research, 108; Temple of Moon-God, 51; 
excavations, site of ancient Carchemish, 74 

Wrench, J. E., explorations in Asia Minor, 74 

Wright, William, The Empire of the Hittites, 72 


Xenia Theological Seminary, expedition of, 109 
Xerxes, inscriptions of, 52 

Xisouthros, 292 

Xystus, 219 


Yadi, kingdom of, 87 

Yakut, Arabian geographer, 233 
Yalif, Hittite remains at, 74 
Yau-bidi, King of Hamath, 88 
Yaudi, identity of, 429 

Year, divisions of, 154 


Zadokite Sect, documents of, 525 

Zamama, temple of, 50 

Zaphenath-Paneah, 34 

Zechariah, assists in rebuilding the temple, 
133, 216 

Zedekiah, rebellion against Babylon, 33, 69 

Ziggurat of Zamama temple, 50 

Zin, exploration in the wilderness of, 101 

Zion, site of Jebus, 204 

Ziugiddu, 306 

Zoser, first king of third dynasty, 25, 331 


* By 
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PLATES 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 1 


Fic. 1. Syrian TRADERS IN EcGyPT, FROM A ToMB AT BENI HASAN. 


Fic. 2. CROWN OF Fic. 3. CROWN OF Fic. 4. CROWN OF 
Lower EGYPT. Upper EGyPt. UNITED EGYPT. 


Fic. 5. SpHINxX AND PYRAMID OF KHAFRE. 


ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE eZ 


Fic. 6. Pyramips or KauFru AND KHAFRE. 


Fic. 7. Step PyRAMID OF ZOSER. 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


II SASNVY {0 AWWA AHL AO GVA 6 “OI 


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ARCILEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 4 


ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 5 


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Fic. 12. PLAN or City AND TEMPLE OF LEONTOPOLIS (after Petrie). 


A PassoveR-OVEN (after Petrie). 


Bree 133 


PLATE 6 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


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ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 7 


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Fic. 17. ExcAvATION AT NUFFAR (after Clay). 


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ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


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ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 9 


Fic. 20. InscrIBED COLUMN FROM Fic. 21. SImLveR VASE OF ENTEMENA 
PERSEPOLIS. 


Fic. 22. Movunp oF Birs Nmrwp (after Peters). 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 10 


Fic. 23. Hirrire Gates at Bocuaz Kot (after Puchstein). 


Fic. 24. Hirrire Types From EGYPTIAN MonuMENTS (after Garstang). 


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ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 11 


Fic. 25. A Hittite Kine (after Puchstein). 


Fic. 26. THE Boss of TARKONDEMOS. Fic. 27. THe SEAL oF SHEMA, SER- 
VANT OF JEROBOAM. 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 12 


Fic. 28. TELL EL-HESY AFTER EXCAVATION. 


Fic. 29. THe SITE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT JERICHO. 


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ARCH OLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 13 


Fic. 31. REMAINS OF A COLONNADED STREET AT SAMARIA. 


PuaTE 14 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


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ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 15 


Fic. 34. IsRAELITISH JERICHO (after Sellin). 


Fic. 35. IsRAELITISH HousEs AT JERICHO (after Sellin). 


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ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 16 


Fic. 36. PHILISTINES FROM THE PALACE OF RAMSES III. 


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Fic. 37. CANAANITISH FORTRESS AT JERICHO (after Sellin). 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Fic. 38.—Inscr1BED Disc FROM PH&STOS (ONE-FOURTH ACTUAL SIZE). 


Fic. 39. GrBet FurEDIs. 


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ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 18 


Fic. 40. BAsTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF AN INSERTED TOWER (after Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


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ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 19 


Fic. 42. WaAtts or BUILDINGS AT SAMARIA (after Reisner). 


Fic. 43. SprEcIMENS OF STONE-WORK AT Fic. 44. BUILDING-BRICKS FROM GEZER 
GEzER (after Macalister). (after Macalister). 


By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 20 


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ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 21 


Fic. 47. ISRAELITISH HOUSES AT GEZER. 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


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Fic. 48. SpecrMens OF Mosaic Ftoors (after Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 22 


Fic. 49. A Doorway at GEZER (after Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Fic. 50. Door-Sockets From GEzER (after Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 23 


Fic. 51. Suprosep House oF HIEt, Jericuo (after Sellin). 


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Fic. 52. FOouNDATION OF THE PALACE OF Omri, SAMARIA (after Reisner). 


Fic. 53. Hesrew PALAcE At Mecmwpo (after Schumacher). 


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ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 24 


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Fic. 54. PLan oF THE MACCABHAN CASTLE AT GEZER (after Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Fic. 55. Stone-Work or THE MACCABEAN CASTLE (after Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Fic. 56. A Founpation-Deposit, GEzER (after Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


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ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


PLATE 25 


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Fic. 59. THe Sours GATE AT BETH- 
SHEMESH (after Mackenzie). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 26 


Fic. 60. ENTRANCE TO THE UNDERGROUND TUNNEL AT GEZER (after Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


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Fic. 61.—THr Norts GATE AT GEZER (after Macalister). 


By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


PLATE 27 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


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ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 28 


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Fic. 64. ONE oF SoLomon’s Poots. 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 29 


Fic. 65. Post or City GATE, SAMARIA (after Reisner). 


Fic. 66. Part or City WALL AND GaTE, SAMARIA (after Reisner). 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 30 


Fic. 67. RoAp SoutH or GErizIm. 


Fic. 68. Lines oF RoMAN Roaps AT TELL EL-FUL. 


Fic. 69 Roman Roap Nort or AMMAN. 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 31 


Fic. 70. A GRANARY AT GEZER (after Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


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; Meee) Fic. 72. Pian or A GRANARY AT GEZER (after 
= Macalister). 


Fic. 71. Some RoMAN MILE-STONES. By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


PLATE 32 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


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PLATE 33 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


*(wosutyit M 491f0) AOGATS-ONIHSTAH], NVILGAOY ‘08 “OT 


“MOOT J-ONIHSAYAT NITGOW Y ‘gz ‘OL 


. 


(wosuryjt MY 491f0) ONIMOTG NVILAKAOY] “LL “OT 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 34 


Fic. 81. A SapDLE-QUERN FROM MEGIDDO (after Schumacher). 


Fic. 82. A Rorary-QuerRN (after Fic. 83. A MortTAR AND PESTLE (after 
Macalister). Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Fic. 84. Two WoMEN GRINDING AT A Mit (after Schumacher). 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Fic. 85. An ANCIENT OLIVE-PRESS (after Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Fic. 86. A Mopern OLIvE-Press (after Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Fd 


ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 36 


Fic. 87. A WINE Vat (after Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Frc. 88. An Ottve-Press at Work (after Macalister), 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


— 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 37 


Fic. 89. Cows’ Horns From GEzeEr (after Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Fic. 90. Anrmats’ HEADS FROM GEZER (after Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Fic. 91. A Horsr’s Bir rRoM GEZER Fic. 92. Drawincs or HorsES FROM 
(after Macalister). GEZER (after Macalister). 


By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


ao 


ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 38 


Fic. 93. A Cray Birp From GEZER (after Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Fic. 94. A Cock From MARISSA (after Peiers Fic. 95. 
and Thiersch). 


By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


A BEE-HIvE From GEZER (after 
Macalister). 


By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


ARCHHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 39 


4 2 3 
ad ic 
4 a “9s BO 
é 
7 
Fic. 96. Pre-Semitic Jars (after Macalister). Fic. 97. PRE-SEMITIC PoTTERY (after 
Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Fic. 98. Four PITCHERS FROM THE First Semitic Stratum (after Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Fic. 99. THREE PITCHERS FROM THE First Fic. 100. A JAR FROM THE First SEMITIC 
Semitic STRATUM (after Macalister). STRATUM (after Macalister). 


By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


PLATE 40 


Fic. 101. Jucs rrom THE SECOND Semitic STRATUM (after Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Fic. 102. A JuG FROM THE SECOND SEmMITIC STRATUM Fic. 103. A JAR FROM THE SEc- 
(after Macalister). OND SEMITIC STRATUM (after 
Macalister). 


By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


PLATE 41 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


“puny 401j;D401G 
“XY auysaypgd fo worssiusag Kg 


"(4ajsypov yy 4ajfv) oat 
GaWOLLOG-LVTY Y “LOT ‘Ol 


‘Pun UoDiojgxag auysaog fo uorsstmsag kg 


*(494S1qDID Jy 
4of0) ZIGNVH ,,aVITd,, VY “901 ‘OIy 


‘PUNY UouDvsojgxgy auysayng fo uorsstusag Kg 


"(401511090 PY 4ajf0) SATONVH-AV[ ,.NOLLAg,, GNV «IVA, “SOT ‘OL 


Y 
y 


SS CSS 


“puny uounsoidxg auysarng fo uorsstusag Kg 


"(491811090 Py 401{D) WOALVALS 
OMWINAS ISUl[ AHL WOU AYALLOG NIJ ANOS “FOI ‘OI 


PLATE 42 


ARCHZ OLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


*(4ayIDUNYIS 4a]{D) OAAIOAW WOAA AMALLOG MIAMI “TIT “OL 


“puny U01jp4sojgxg aursajpg fo uorsswusag Kg 
(a1zuayID JW 
491f0) HSAWAHS-HLAG WO WALVALS OLLINGS GAIN] JO sav{ ‘OTT mo) a | 


*(4dYIDUNYIS 49} fD) 
OddIodg| WOUT GUYAHSLOg NO ANAOS-AVM 


60T “Olt 


“puny uoynsojgxy auysaypg fo uoissviusag Kg 


“(a1zUuayID PY 43]{D) HSAWAHS 
-HLGg WOut ASVA UNILSITHG CaLNIVg Y 


801 “SI 


aa. 
ais. 


PLATE 43 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


*(un19S 
41/0) OHOIAAL WOT SIMOG GNV SYTHOLIG MAAAAPT 


ett “OI 


*(UI119S 
44/0) OHOTAAL WOUd SYTHOLIG GNV SUV[ MAYAAPT “ZTT “OT 


PLATE 44 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


‘puny uoynsoidxy auysaipg fo uorsstuasag Kg 


*(4ajsUyDov Jy 
4ajf0) AAZAD WOAd AAALLOG MAXAAT 


“LIT “OI 


"puny uouvsojgxg auysavg fo uorssrmsag Kg 


“(4ajS4jDID Py 494 {D) 
wazdt) WONd IvVdS SAALLOg YW “sil ‘ory 


“puny uoyvsojgxy auysavg fo uorsstumsag fg 


"(491511090 Jy 
pun ssijg 491{D) HVIAHdAHS AHL WOUL dWVLS 
“avf MaAGIA GaaIMOSNT NY ‘OTT ro) | 


“puny uounsojguy aurysajpg fo uorssimsag Kg 


*(4ajsiqDIv Jy 
4ajf0) MAZi WOAL TANNOY Y ‘“FII “oIg 


a 


“puny uoyvsoigury auysaipg fo uorssvusag Kg “puny uoynsojdug auysaog fo uoissiusag Kg 
*(4aSYDIDW 491{D) AAZAD) 


*(49jSYDID Wa WAL fe J : 
4ajf0) AAZAX) WOU AAALLO OMSINATIAY “ZZ “OT zt 4ALT1Y OWSINATIAH [ZT “Oly 


PLATE 45 


“puny uounsoigxa” auysajpg fo uorsstusag Kg 
"(494817090 PY 4a}{D) AVAVOS WV HLIM 
GadWVLS AIGNVH-avf Y ‘6IT “olg 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


“puny uoynsojdxy auysaog fo uorssimaag ig 
*(49jsyDID WY 4a4f{D) AAZA) WOUA asvg 
ONIAdV], HIIM AV{ WY ‘OZT ‘SIy 


“puny uoynsojgxg auysajog fo uoissvmasag Kg 


*(4aj84)DID WY 4ajfD) ANVLIS-aV{ 
V SV dasa dvavoS YW ‘SII ‘Ol 


ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 46 


Fic. 123. HELLentstic STRAINER FROM GEZER (after Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fun. 


Fic. 124. Roman Pots FRoM GEZER (after Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Fic. 125. HerLientstic JAR FROM GEZER Fic. 126. A Lamp or THE First SEMITIC 
(after Macalister). wt PERIOD, MEcrppo (after Schumacher). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


x ' 
$ 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 47 


Fic. 127. Lamps rRoM THE SECOND SeMITIC PERIOD, GEZER (after Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Fic.128. Lamps rrom THE IsRAELITISH PERIOD, Fic. 129. A Byzantine 
GEZER (after Macalister). Ga JERICHO (after 
ellin 


By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


bUICXY PENTIACIN 


PUOCY IMEVGLAOY 
C9) \C4L\ GIOONA BO OOWH 
(\\ HWOCOA WVHAGVUH 


OW YO Alt 
DOV OYOVOO 


Fic. 130. A LAMP BEARING A CHRISTIAN LEGEND (after Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Lol 


PLATE 48 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


HELLentstic Lamps From GEZER (after Macalister). 


BPiem31: 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


HEBREW Lamps FROM JerIcHo (after Sellin). 


Fic. 132. 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 49 


Fic. 133. Ovens FOUND AT GEzER (after Macalister). 


By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Fic. 134. A BAKING-TRAy From Grzer (after Fic. 135. Bronze DISHES FROM GEZER (after 
Macalister). Macalister). 


By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Fic. 136. SHELL SPOONS FROM GEZER (after Macalister). 


By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 50 


Fic. 137. Sitver DISHES FROM A PHILISTINE GRAVE AT GEZER (after Macalister). 


By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Fic. 138. Grass OINTMENT VESSELS FROM GEZER (after Macalister). 


By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund, 


= 


PuaTeE 51 


ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


“puny uouynsojgdxg auysajpg fo worsstussad dg 


*(49]S1]D9D WW 
49}{D) waza4) WOAd SNIG GNV SAIGHAN AZNOUG ‘ZFI mo) Us | 


s 
ee ODOTEMNIETO,, ps 4 
"h & oy 
-. ‘6 
te | ov 
Sad \ & } ! s 
1 | 


‘puny wounsoigxay 
auysapd fo uorssimsag Kg 


*“(4aisypov yy 43} {D) 
YqZay) ‘ATGW] AAATIS 
ANIISITHG ‘Th ‘914 


“PUNY UoNDdsojgxg auysajvg fo uoissimaag Kg 


*(49SYDID YW 49{{0) AIZAN) WOAA SHAOT ‘OFT “Ol 


“puny uorjvsojgxey aurysaypg jo uorissimasagd Kg 


"(49481090 JY 43]{D) AAZA‘) ‘(¢) SATILLOG-ONIGATT “OF ] “Old 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE. 52 


Fic. 143. Bone NEEDLES FROM GEZER (after Macalister). 


By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Fic. 145. SprnpLE WHORLS FROM GEZER 
(after Macalister). 


By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Fic. 144. Moprern WoMAN SPINNING. 


By permission of Mrs. Grant Williams. 


cece 


Fic. 146. A LArce Kry From GEZER (after Macalister). Fic. 147. A SMALLER 
Key FROM GEZER (after 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. Macalister). 


By permission of Palestine 
Exploration Fund. 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 53 


Fic. 148. Lame STANDS FROM Mecippo (after Schumacher). 


Fic. 149. Fxrinr KNIVES FROM JERICHO (after Sellin). 


PLATE 54 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


‘puny woupnsojgxy auysajpg fo uorssiusag Kg 
(49jS1)D9D PW 4aj{0) AAZAD) WOAA SAAINY] AZNOAG [ST “og 


"PUNY UONDdLOIGKT auysaypg fo uorsstusag Kg 


*(4ajSYDID PY 491{D) AAZAL) WOAA SHAAINY NOT 


. 


OST “OT 


ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 55 


Fic. 152. A CHISEL FROM GEZER (after Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Fic. 153. A FILE FROM 

GEZER (after Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration 
Fund. 


Fic. 155. A BronzE HAMMER- 
HEAD, GEZER (after Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Explora- 

tion Fund. 


Fic. 154. A CONE OF FLINT FOR MAKING KNIVES, GEZER Sw) 
ar (after Macalister). 

By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. Fic. 156. A FisH-Hook, GEZER 
(after Macalister). 

By permission of Palestine Explora- 


tion Fund. 


Fic. 157. A Bone Awt-HANDLE FROM GEZER (after 
Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Fic. 159. Nats rromM GEZER (after 
Macalister). 

By permission of Palestine Explora- 

Fic. 158. WHETSTONES FROM JERICHO (after Sellin). tion Fund. 


& 
ete 
‘ 
& 
« 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 56 


~ 
~ 
S 
ro] 
ea} 
N 
inal e 
oes 
a 2 
g ca 
= = 
aes s 
Qty & 
Oy Ss 
bt S, 
ish PS 
MS 
aes 
BS 
BOS 
& n 
py — 
% 3 
< AY 
ae 
: S 
So 
bow a 
cee 
Mees 
ol 3 
a 
> 
is) 
re 
= 
a 
3 
3 
BSB 
= 
~ . 
s& SS 
= 5 
Ry 
[4 
iS) ~ 
N x) 
ica Ss 
e) = 
Ss 
as 
& 
= Q 
wm * 
aos 
a aes 
jae = 
J ; 3 
cl ic] A, 
re 5 SS 
4, <x Ss 
its = 
Wy cS 
¢ ES 
“A 
“2 


Fic. 160. 


By perm 


te 


PLATE 57 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


‘PUNY UONDLOIGXA aursapg fo uorssusag Kg 


"(494817090 
49j{0) AAZAD) WOU SGVAH]-MOAAY AZNOUG “SOT “Olg 


“PUNY UoNDnsoidxy auysaipg fo uorssiusad Kg 


"(49]S1]D9D Jy 
49jfD) "aazayQ word savay{ 


‘PUN UoyDsorgua auysarpg fo uorsstmsag (g 


‘(4ajsypov yy 4aj{v) aazay 


-MOUaY INITJ ‘POL “Ol ‘any NO LaASV g VY do NOISSaadnyT “COT “OI 


“puny Uoyniojgxg aurysayvg fo uorsstmsad Kg 
*( 49481090 WY 49jf0) AAZAD) WOAA AVLIINIOS Y ‘ZO “Ol 


Sh apenas hens mea 


PLATE 58 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


"puny Ud1DLOIG XY autjsajpg fo uotssuusag Kg 


*(4ajsYyDID PY 
4ajfD) AAZAD) ‘SAVAH-AVAdS AZNOAG “L9] ‘Oly 


4940) 


‘puny uUoynsojgxy aurssaipg fo uorsswmasag Kg 


*(A9ISYDID 
YAZAD) WOAd SCAOMS AZNOAG 99] “Oly 


ARCH OLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 59 


Fic. 168. A PIPE FROM GEZER (after Macalister). Fic. 169. An EcyprTian Harp (after Haupt). 


By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


4 


Et 


wal 


Fic. 172. A BABYLONIAN HARP 
(after Haupt). 


. 
i 


SG BRAAT ESE 


Pea 


Fic. 170. An Assyr- Fic. 171. An AsSsyRIAN 
IAN UPRIGHT MHArpP HorizonTaAL MHArp (after 
(after Haupt). Haupt). 


Fic. 173. Jewish Harps ON Cotns or Bar CocHesa, Fic. 174. AssyrtaN DULCIMER 
132-135 a. p. (after Madden). (after Haupt). 


‘vebestaoee 0 


SB a ae 


te 


. 
ne 
zt 
. 
te, 
a “ 
a 
a 
ome 
Savas 
Re ah 
ao oz? 
erie 
Seog 
‘2 
+ 
* 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 60 


Fic. 175. SEALs FROM GEZER Fic. 176. A ComB FROM GEZER (after 
(after M. acalister). , Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Fic. 177. Toys FroM GEZER (after Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund, 


fig.2 to half scale 


Fic. 178. Styz~t FRoM GEzeEr (after Macalister). Fic. 179. CHILDREN’s RATTLES FROM 
GEZER (after Macalisier). 


By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


: vet BS 


= " J J 
a4 . 7 . 
= v "s * ’ ) 
= i 7 7 . Ps 
x : > : } 
' * , 4 : 
7 * - ‘ - 
ww : i a ‘ 
“ s, > i , f y ie 
i ‘ . . 
: ¥ 
at Ld * ‘ s ? © 
. » * % ms J , le 
n 
4 7 ‘ es ‘ A 
,* ‘ Y di 4 5 ‘ 
» : : , . 
i 
I 
" 4 
, * > 
$ Ps ‘ J 4 ’ . 1 
. ‘ 
J 
1 ‘ 
‘ 4 . ' rt * 
, r « 
: - ’ ‘ “ ‘ul : J 
. , ah ag mt 
= : 


% 
hi’ 


ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 61 


og 
ro 
& 


—— 
i) 


Fees? 


re 
waked 
ss 
ad 


Fic. 180. A PERFUME-Box, GEZER (after Fic. 181. A NECKLACE FROM GEZER (after 
Macalister). Macalister). 


By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. By permisston of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


16 1S 
——— : 
>————_ > 


7 
9 


Fic. 182. BRACELETS FROM GEZER (after Fic. 183. SPATULE FROM GEZER (after 
Macalister). \ Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Fic. 184. RINcs FROM GEZER (after Macalister). 


By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Cress 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 62 


Fic. 185. Suppos—ep HEBREW MEASURES FROM JERUSALEM (after Germer-Durand). 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 63 


EY VNMAQS 


isF2!p4 


Fic. 187. A Payim WEIGHT BELONGING 
TO HAVERFORD COLLEGE. 


Fic. 189. A “Daric” oF 
Darius (after Benzinger). 


Fic. 191. A Corn or Protemy Lact (after Benzinger). 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 64 


dl 
| nl ae, 
—_—— 


Fic. 192. Hatr-SHEKEL or SIMON THE MACCABEE ‘Fic. 193. A Corn or Jonn Hyrcanus 
(after Benzinger). (after Madden). 


\ ie Y 
Yl mi! 


A COIN oF 
AUGUSTUS, 


Fis. 200. A Corn or Herop Acrrppa I, Fic. 201. A SHEKEL orf THE REVOLT OF A. D. 70, 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


PLATE 65 


Fic. 202. Cave-DweELtrrs’ PLACE OF SACRIFICE, GEZER (after M. acalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Fic. 203. PLAn or CAVES AT Semitic HicH Fic. 204. “Pittars” or THe Hicu PLace at 
PLACE, GEZER (after Macalister). GEZER. 


By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 66 


Fic. 205. Rock-ALTAR aT MEGwwpo (after Schumacher). 


Fic. 206. THe ‘ BreTH-EL” oF GezerR (after Fic. 207. Tar Supposep SERPENT-PEN AT 
Macalister). GEZER (after Macalister). 


By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Fic. 208: Tue Rock-ALTar AT JERUSALEM (after Dalman). 


Fic. 209. Tuer LAver At GEZER (after Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


* 


PLATE 68 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


(uijaS 49}{v) 


HOVNWV J], LV DOVIg HOI, Gasoddns 


NG 


. 


ol 


(427195' 4931/0) 


HOVNVV I], Woud UVLITY VLILOO 


Vata] FHT, “OZ ‘ony 


« ‘ 7 sd ’ i 
- . 
. t = 
Re cs 4 3 ets 
, . 
5 
. ; : 
2 ‘ * . : ve 
: 3 
- 


ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 69 


pO FASS ls OT VE! BL Thee 


Fic. 212. Hic Prace at TELL Es-Sart (after Bliss and Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Fic. 213. Lrsation Bowl rrRoM TAANACH Fic. 214. 


(after Sellin) AN ASTARTE PLAQUE FROM 
after Sellin). 


GEZER (after Macalister). 


By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


* 


Lad 
ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 70 


IW E Yy z 
| NY CAA 
. Real 


cat ; 
Boo 
=e —Y 
ee RE zee, 
i as n 
= \ 
S34 


A 


Y 


Va“ 


J 


UY es JM Hk: 


Fic. 215. PLAN or THE HicH Prace at Petra (after Briinnow), 


First Post- RQ Tard() do 
Jewish per. 


G seond do FEY ruth do 


Fic. 216, PLAN or Herop’s Tempe at SAMARIA (after Lyon). 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PrAte, 71 


& 


Fic. 218. Tae ‘“Rounp ALTAR” 
AT PETRA (after Briinnow). 


Fic. 219. Supposep “Pitiars”’ AT Petra (after Briinnow). 


PLATE 72 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


*(4ausiay 491{D) VraVNVS 


¢ 


ITINA], $,dOaaf] AO STIVM 


“T22 


“Oly 


Lv 


“puny wounsojgxgy auysajpg fo uorssiusag Kg 
"(49jsDID Wy 494 {D) AaAZAN) 
GIdNA], OMINAS dasOddNS 40 NVIQ ‘OQZZ ‘DIY 


“puny uoynsojgxy auysapg fo worssimsag Kg 


"(494817090 
YdzZay) WOAd INAdYaAS NAZVUG YW “P6IZ “OIA 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 73 


Fic. 222. “Prrtars” oF A SUPPOSED TEMPLE, GEZER (after Macalister). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Fic. 223. CHAPEL OF THE PALACE AT MEGIDDO (after Schumacher) 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Fic. 225. INcENSE-BURNER FROM Mecippo (after Schumacher). 


PLATE 


74 


PLATE 75 


ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


“puny uoypnsojgxy aursapg fo uorssiudag Kg 


*(49jSYDID 
4ajfD) AIZAIH LV TvIdog-NaGLsIQ VY 


‘¥ 


67C “OI 


‘DUNT UoNDsOIgx” auysajpg Jo uorsstmsag Kg 


‘puny uoynsojgxy auysaing fo uoissimsag Kg 


*(d9JSUDID JV 
pup ssug 4ajfp) ANO]-1LaVHS Y 


*‘(dasuizuag 4a} {D) 
WVOUS LY dNO]T NMAH-1OOY VY 


"Le? OIA 
“8CC “SIN 


eZ Ys ee 


*(49]S1)DID JY 49]{D) MAZAD ‘SHAAVAD ANILSIMH “977 ‘OA 


YL LLL ODIO LLL 


le 


a ae PLL LILLE VILL LLL 


Ea ieea > | 


MALL LL LL LLL 


S 


See 


Z 


VW LICLLOR LLL LES 4A LLL MLL Y 
A ty | y) 
rn be) Z 
re 8 \ g 
an 3 u 
4 gro om TS 

oY 

Ps 


| os sare 


GUM LEA LUM Yh bhi te 
: ED a 


| 


“Cnt Ville Wt VA Wad 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Fic. 231. ENTRANCE TO THE TOMB OF THE JUDGES. 


f 


I~ 
I~ 


PLATE 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


). 


ina-Vereins 


St 


F 


Pal 


Deutsch. 


Nach. d 


~ 


itt 


M 


‘ter 


-Door Toms (a/ 


UNKEN 


AS 


Fic. 232. 


Kokim IN THE TOMB OF THE JUDGES. 


Fic. 233. 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 78 


fa 


Y 


RARAAL 


EN 


SSS 
SASSSSSSSSSS 


ASS 


VY. WY, 
y 

LLLLLZLLLLLD LLLLLLLLLLL, 
Z LLIZZZILEZZ OD OZ. 


LLLLZITTIT ZZ 
LILLE 


G 
pauls rz 


Fz 


Y) 
a 
32) ss od 


LLLZLLLLLLL 


—- 
Vie 


ze 


SSS 


| 
i ee 


M2 LLY 


; a 
VM YL es 


GY on, 25 _ 417 
silly ZA i (21 sols Yeah ly yz Hy 
Yj ZIZIZILIZE Pay Y Aw Y BY om 
Yrs. Y my Wig my 
Z Mtttt Zp ol 00. Guage Av VY 
"UPOTTIZIZIIIZ LLL a if 7 
pe 4 LE 


Wi OB 


SCALB 1:100. 


il ° ! 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 io” 
Yj 


Fic. 234. PLAn oF A HELLENISTIC TOMB AT MARISSA (after Peters and Thiersch). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


4% a 
qeallt 


UUé€c +S: 
Y Wild WVt¢Mtémté- ap 
UY) 
Ea 6a 6A“ 


= avawavavelalalmu-v.v-0Z7 
a 


eee Ye 
OA Yy 


Pa Hasnain 


Fic. 235. A Cross-SECTION OF THE TOMB OF THE JUDGES, 


WSS i 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 79 


looking North. 


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Fic. 236. ARCHITECTURAL DECORATION OF A HELLENISTIC TomB AT Marissa (after Peters and 
Thiersch). 


By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund, 


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ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 80 


Fic. 239. InrTEeRIOR OF A HELLENISTIC TomB AT Marissa (after Peters and Thiersch). 


By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 81 


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THE HILLs AND VALLEYS OF JERUSALEM (after Vincent). 


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Fic. 240. 


moun jo AaTIvA 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PEATE RG. 


Fic. 241. UNDERGROUND JEBUSITE TUNNEL AT GIHON, JERUSALEM (after Vincent). 


Fic. 242. MavupsLey’s Scarp, JERUSALEM. 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 83 


Fic. 244. PHanicIAN QUARRY-MARKS, JERUSALEM (after Warren). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


— Tar yh! 


Fic. 245. SHAFT AT THE SOUTHEAST CORNER OF THE TEMPLE AREA (after Warren). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Fic. 246. Examininc ANCIENT WALLS IN AN UNDERGROUND TUNNEL (after Warren). 
By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


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Fic. 247. Front VIEWS OF SOLOMON’s TEMPLE (after Stade). 


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Fic. 248. Smr Views or SOLOMON 


PLATE 86 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


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Fic. 250. THe SEVEN-BRANCHED LAMP-STAND FROM THE ARCH OF TITUS, 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 87 


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Fic. 251. THe Brazen Laver or Sotomon’s TEMPLE (after Stade). 


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Fic. 252. A PorTABLE LAVER OF SOLOMON’s TEMPLE (after Stade). 


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PLATE 88 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


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ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 89 


Fic. 256. Front or “‘Davip’s TOWER” (HEROD’s PALACE) TopAy (after Breen). 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 90 


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Fic. 257. RECONSTRUCTION OF HEROD’S TEMPLE (after Caldecott). 


ROSCA eR 
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Fic. 258. ‘‘SoLtomon’s STABLES.” 


PLATE 91 


ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


*AUAHOTOdAS ATOPF{s AHL JO HOUNH,) AHL A0 LINO 


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ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 92 


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Fic. 261. ‘‘Garpon’s CALVARY,” LOOKING TOWARD JERUSALEM (after Breen). 


Fic. 262. ‘‘GorpDoN’s CALVARY,” FROM THE City WALL (after Breen). 


Ne 


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ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 93 


Fic. 263. OvursmDrE or ““GorpDon’s HoLy SEPULCHER”’ (after Breen). 


Fic. 264. Insmpe or “‘Gorpon’s Hoty SEPULCHER”’ (after Breen). 


« 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 94 


Fic. 265. THe BarapA (ABANA), DAMASCUS. 


Fic. 266. THE STREET CALLED STRAIGHT, DAMASCUS. 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 95 


Fic. 267. PALACE AT KANATHA (after Briinnow). 


Fic. 268. CrrRcULAR ForRUM AND COLONNADED STREET, GERASA. 


ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 96 


Fic. 269. TEMPLE OF THE SUN, GERASA. 


Fic. 270. Site or RABBAH AMMON. 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 97 


Fic. 271. THEATER AT AMMAN (PALESTINIAN PHILADELPHIA). 


Fic. 272. Roman Forum AT ATHENS. 


~ 


ARCH OLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 98 


Fic. 273. Mars’ Hiri, ATHENS. 


Fic. 274. FOouNTAIN IN THE AGORA, CORINTH. 


ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 99 


Zuva]yoyn ‘ESp[acov. 


Fic. 275. LInTEL oF JEwIsH SYNAGOGUE, CORINTH (after Richardson). 


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Fic. 276. Lrcna#um Roap, Corints (after Richardson). 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 100 


Fic. 277. PARTHENON, ATHENS, FROM THE EAST. 


9 ns a 


Fic. 278. MAIN STREET AT EPHESUS. 


ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 101 


Fic. 279. Sire of THE TEMPLE OF DIANA, EPHESUS, IN 1902. 


Fic. 280. THe THEATER, EPHESUS. 


— 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 102 


Fic. 281. THe AMPHITHEATER, EPHESUS. 


Fic. 282. THe Sraprium, EPHESUS. 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 103 


Fic. 283. PERGAMUM (after Ramsay). 


Fic. 284. THE ACROPOLIS AND PARTLY EXCAVATED TEMPLE, SARDIS (after Butler). 


i“ 


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PLATE 104 


ARCHXOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


“(4ayng 4a1{D) KATIVA SQWYAP, AHL GAVMOL ONIXOOT ‘SIGUVS ‘ATAWA], GALVAVOXY 


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ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 105 


Fic. 286. A CHristiAN CHURCH AT SARDIS (after Butler). 


Fic. 287. Smyrna (after Ramsay). 


ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 106 


Fic. 288. A Ruin at LAopicea (after Ramsay). 


Fic. 289. A BRIDGE OVER THE JORDAN ON THE LINE OF A RomAN Roan. 


Sava 


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PLATE 107 


ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


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ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 108 


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Fic. 294. A TasBLetr FROM NIppuR, RE- Fic. 295. Tor oF THE BLacK OBELISK OF 
LATING THE BEGINNINGS OF IRRIGATION AND SHALMANESER. 
AGRICULTURE (after Langdon). 


WO fen 


Fic. 296. Jesu or IsrAEL Domnc HoMAGE TO SHALMANESER. 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 109 


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Fic. 297. THe SILoAM INSCRIPTION. 


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Fic. 298, SENNACHERIB RECEIVING TRIBUTE AT LacutsxH (after Ball). 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE Puate 110 


Tue MOABITE STONE. 


Fic. 300. 


An ALTAR TO UNKNOWN Goons (after Deissmann), 


Fic. 299. 


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ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


Papyrus CONTAINING SAYINGS OF JESUS (after Grenfell and Hunt) 


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Fic. 302. PicTURE OF BABYLONIAN SEAL (from Revue d’Assyriologie, XIII, 6). 


Fic. 303. InscrrBep Mosaic oF AIN DUK. 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 113 


Fic. 304. Statue or Kinc TUTANKHAMEN. GUARDING INNER SEALED Doorway oF Hts Toms. 
By Courtesy of Howard Carter. 


PLATE 114 


ARCHAOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


. 


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DEPICTING KING AND QUEE 


Back PANEL OF THE THRONE OF TUTANKHAMEN. 


oUSs 
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ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 115 


Fic. 307. STarRWAY OF ZIGGURAT AT UR. 
By Permission of University Museum. 


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ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 116 


Fic. 308. Tur “CANNON” oF ASHKELON; ANCIENT PILLARS IMBEDDED IN THE WALL. 
By Permission of American Schools of Oriental Research. 


Fic. 309. Text EL-Fut; Prer FROM THE THIRD FORTRESS AT GIBEAH. 
By Permission of American Schools of Oriental Research. 


+ 


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 117 


Fic. 310. EXCAVATION ON THE Hitt OPHEL, JERUSALEM, SHOWING THE WALLS OF THE MILLO 
TowER AND “THE BREACH OF DAVID.” 


By Courtesy of Palestine Exploration Fund. 


Fic. 311. AN Inscription Founp IN JERUSALEM THOUGHT TO REFER TO THE SYNAGOGUE OF 
tHE LIBERTINES. (After Weill.) 


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Fic. 312. THe CHALicE or ANTIOCH. SHOWING CENTRAL FIGURE BELIEVED TO REPRESENT 
CuRIST, WITH FicuRES BENEATH REPRESENTING THE AposTLres PETER AND PAUL. 


By Courtesy of Kouchakji Fréres, owners of International Copyright. 


ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 119 


Fic. 313. AN ENLARGED SECTION OF THE CHALICE OF Antioca, Twice AcTUAL SizE. THE 
FicurE 1s BELIEVED TO REPRESENT THE APOSTLE Perer. Tue Vine, BAsKET, AND LAMB ARE 


CHRISTIAN SYMBOLS. 
By Courtesy of Kouchakji F réres, owners of International Copyright. 


PLATE 120 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE 


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ARCHAZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 121 


Fic. 315. CycLopEAN CORNER OF HOLy CIRCLE OF THE TEMPLE OF ELBERITH AT SHECHEM. 
Courtesy of Bishop H. M. Du Bose. 


Beak tie lareab, 


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ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 122 


Fic. 316. StreLe or Ramses II From BEISAN. 
By courtesy of the University Museum. 


2. 


ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE Prave- 123 


eae 3 s es eS Oe SiSeaaR ON A ss Stine eo 


Fic. 317. ExcavaTION AT ANTIOCH IN PismpIiA. LOOKING OvER BYZANTINE CHURCH IN 
THE FOREGROUND, UP THE STEPS OF THE PROPYLAHA TO THE ROCK SEMI-CIRCLE BACK OF THE 
GREAT TEMPLE. 


By Courtesy of American Journal of Archeology. 


Fic. 318. ANTIOCH IN PismpIA. SQUARE OF TIBERIUS, FROM THE NORTHEAST. 
By Courtesy of American Journal of Archeology. 


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ARCHZOLOGY AND THE BIBLE PLATE 124 


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Fic. 319. Map SHOWING PROBABLE CourRSE OF “THIRD WALL” AT JERUSALEM. 
By Courtesy of the American Schools of Oriental Research. 


Fic. 320. Srcrion or Great WatL At TELL EN-NASBEH EXCAVATED BY DEAN BADE. 
-++ = ENTRANCE OF TOMB. —» = OurTeR EDGE oF WALL. 


By Courtesy of the American Schools of Oriental Research. 


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